It has been a delight to work on Sanitise. It is the biggest show I have worked on in terms of its' technical elements. So I thought I would share some things that I have had to keep in mind as the Production Manager/operator on the tour.

That we must have a show that can get in and get out each day in 15 minutes of The Edinburgh Fringe but can also tour to studio theatres.
We had a great space at Underbelly for the Fringe and we had to keep in mind that we had to keep our daily get in to the incredible 15 minutes that is a fringe get in. We were restricted on this in terms how much we could rig but also how much mess we could make during the show. Simon Hayes has redesigned our lighting design from our Fringe show to use the full rig of the theatres we visit and you will be glad to know that we have upped the messiness for the tour, but I cant say anymore!

I have cues based on expressions and movements from Mel so the most important thing for me to know where she is and to follow her pacing.
As a " Vaudeville clowning" show Sanitise is non verbal. My cues are based on seeing and feeling what Mel is performing. I follow the changes of expressions as the character's thought changes, often these new thoughts are transitions or cue points. My book is not based on text but we do have a script, I work from the same thought script as Mel. We have often gone back to revisit cues with Caitlin so we can know precisely if it is an eyebrow cue or a non eyebrow cue. It is really precise but with each audience the pace is different due to their reaction and so my cues will alter slightly each night as long as I can see Mel it’s all good!

Ammie x

Sanitise rehearsals have started again and I am so delighted to be back working on this show. I have missed performing it! We have had a break of 4 months and now it is time to get Sanitise ready to hit the road. I have to admit I was a little nervous going into rehearsal that I wouldn’t be able to remember any of it! The show became second nature to me in August, to the point where I wasn’t even thinking what came next on stage. The action of the play was so embedded in me that I could really live in the moment on stage and really feel what the character was experiencing in her strange wee bathroom! It was great fun! However, after 4 months doing other things this isn’t so easy…

So how do you revisit a play with no words? Our first task was to remind ourselves of the ‘think script’ which outlines each individual thought rather than lines of text. We rewrote the whole play based on the characters thought narrative. With each individual thought comes an action and/or facial expression. When we were creating the show last year we put a great deal of attention on clarifying each thought so that each thought could be read clearly on my face or through my movement on stage. This was quite a long and sometimes difficult process as every raise of my eyebrow was scrutinised and placed carefully within the show. However, this hard work has proved incredibly useful now in remembering the show as the thoughts and actions/facial expressions go hand-in-hand. Each on-stage thought automatically creates the facial expressions we worked so hard on last summer. So, it hasn’t been all that difficult to remember. (Phew).

It has been really fun revisiting the show and having a laugh at how silly it is! With each rehearsal there is at least one moment of freestyle dancing to Danny Krass’ fantastic soundtrack. Who doesn’t want to come in to work and get down to Barry White? “Can’t get enough of your love, babe…”

Mel x

In just a couple of days time we go back into the rehearsal room to prepare for a Scottish tour so thought it would be good time to reflect a little on what it feels like to be coming back to the show and taking it out again.

The process of creating Sanitise was both hugely fun, deeply frustrating and tremendous hard work but our rigor paid off and we created a show that was completely our own and that we were very proud of. All this was topped by a successful run and really warm reception at the Edinburgh Fringe, despite (or perhaps because of) the shows unusual themes and style. 

However, the Edinburgh Fringe is a very particular environment, the audiences are unique and the whole experience completely unlike most other theatre contexts. So, as we prepare to take the show on the road, will it become a different show? Does having won an award like the Fringe First change the way people will watch the show and the expectations the audiences have? Will our quirky world be as easily accepted amongst the other shows in the spring programmes of the venues on our tour? Do we need to think about changing the show in order to make the most of the Scottish touring context?

Obviously there are practical things we need to think about but artistically although I know there will be things we will want to rethink, I think we need to be true to the original work and not loose faith in it. In the original process we spent a lot of time thinking about the audience and surely having a different audience in mind will influence the choices we make? I can’t imagine Mel and I will be able to get this new potential audience out of our head as we rework the show. Sanitise is a very precise show- we spent ours figuring out the details of single looks and eyebrow raises! How can we possibly recreate it exactly after such a long time?  So it’s bound to be different, that’s the point of live performance, but how much we are influenced by the new context, I think we will have to wait and see….

Caitlin Skinner - Director

Hi everyone,

It’s the end of week 3! Crikey how did that happen?

The process over the last few weeks has been quite slippery as there are still some parts of the show that we are not quite settled on and some creative problems we still need to solve.

In Week 2 we worked on a broad sketch of the whole show, trying not to get bogged down in detail but to work through everything to get a sense of the story and truth of our character. We made some big choices this week, changed the order about a bit, cut some material, brought in whole new ideas.

In Week 3 we started to work on detail, enjoying choreography, finding the precision needed for certain moments. We also invented a ‘Think Script’ for our silent character which records what she is thinking at every moment. We discovered that the audience are really engaged when we know what our character is thinking, when she shares it with us. So now in creating each scene Melanie talks out loud to us during the scene sharing her thoughts. I type this out furiously and then when Melanie is rehearsing she can find non verbal action, looks, facial expressions that communicate these thoughts.

The beginning and the end are still the parts that need the most work. As the meat of the show gets stronger we seem to be getting clearer about what we need though. Each Friday for the last week so far we have finished with a run of the show followed by a discussion and feedback session with everyone about where we are at and how things are reading. The discoveries we made after watching the run-throughs has been the driving force for our work for the following week and after the run this Friday we have a much clearer sense of what we need to do.

This week we will focus more on the technical elements of the show and tomorrow we start having audio visuals in rehearsals. This will flip the show upside down, inside out all over again!

Wish us luck!!

Caitlin and Melanie x

So during our first week in rehearsals we have been drafting through the show trying to set out the journey of the piece as we know it. It's been a real challenge not to go into details and get stuck but to work through the whole thing as much as we can.

We started by creating a big storyboard adding in questions about things we're not sure on and also putting in new ideas that we want to try out. We posted it up around the rehearsal room and throughout the week have been working through it scene by scene. We were keen as a team to work in a way that includes elements like set, costume and AV from an early stage and so when the set arrived on Monday we spent most of the day playing on it to see what Mel can do physically.

As well as trying things out 'on their feet' and improvising with old and new material we have also gone back to research, discussion and brain storming. We've been gathering images, videos, music and newspaper articles which we want to draw on as creative influences and incorporate into the world of the show. It's been a strange process to move between both research and practical work but each part seems to be supporting each other well for the stage we are at.

It has been a very up and down week. Some days we feel as if we have had the ten best ideas in theatre history and some days we have gotten ourselves completely stuck. Part of our challenge has been with redeveloping the existing material we have from the work in progress. Suddenly the ideas that have worked in the past don't fit anymore and it's difficult to move past them. The parts when we are starting from scratch have been much easier though.

We need to finish drafting out the show next week and then we can go back and enjoy the detail again. For now though we are off for a nice rest. See you next week!! 

Melanie and Caitlin x

For the last few months I have been busy working on the illustrations for Sanitise, which will soon be brought to life by animator, Calum MacAskill. They will depict the thoughts, feelings, fantasies, obsessions and visions of our almost silent female protagonist; who, while in the quiet, 'clean', privacy of her own bathroom, explores female and sexual identity, female insecurity, cultural expectations and domestic ideals. 

These themes are similar to that of my solo practice, it was  therefore a perfect opportunity and seemed a natural setting for my work. I was very excited when Caitlin and Mel approached me to collaborate on this project.

We began with a few development days, discussing all things from themes, image, set design and lighting, to toilet habits, hair, sex toys, and mould. This process was something very new and enjoyable to me, as I usually work alone, even when doing commissions for artists/theatre groups, my involvement is usually to a much smaller degree. 

We came up with a rough animation storyboard. Knowing that there was a possibility these would change, as the show was still in development, I concentrated first on the strongest scenes - sections that were definitely going to make it to the final production.

I began working in my usual drawing style, mono-printing - meaning I draw everything backwards - I find this loosens up my drawings, as I am not concentrating on how the final image will look, more about the actual process of the drawing itself. It's an almost mediative state, a very child-like approach, which I find most natural.  This also helps to create a rough, quirky line, which I felt was suited to this project as the images would be moving - this style gives the drawings a sense movement even before they are animated. 

With the set being mostly white/off white, with items sporadically appearing in full colour, I decided that these black line drawings would be strong enough as they were against the white 'canvas', perhaps with a little touch of colour here and there, the team agreed that this would be an effective visual outcome. 

From the short animations I have seen Calum create so far, I am amazed at what he can do with so few of my illustrations. I'm eager to see more of them come to life, and am very excited to see the whole show come together. 

Sanitise is going into rehearsal at the end of next week and as designer for the production I am in the middle of the busy build period. The set is being built by Impact Arts in Edinburgh. Their workshop is just up the road from me and it is great to have a build happen so close to home. Following on from this week I will be aiming to finalise the costume designs and gather props for the beginning of rehearsals.

When working on a devised piece it is useful for all involved to get the set into rehearsals as early as possible. This is also true for highly physical shows, it will mean Caitlin and Mel can have the maximum amount of time to experiment with the space and use the design to its full potential. Getting the set built early on also has the advantage of freeing up my time during the rehearsal period to assist Caitlin creatively, adapt the design elements of the show as needed and concentrate on the finer details of the production design, my favorite part of every show.

Designing for a devised piece is a little different to working with a ready-made script. The creative team worked enthusiastically together to discuss themes and moments of action which Caitlin and Mel then storyboarded together to create a rough outline of the play. I incorporated these same ideas into my design. Working through these ideas in rehearsal the Director can decide whether they have a place in the final production or they might lead on to something even better.

The set design for Sanitise needs to be a viewed as a sacred temple to our protagonist and yet look familiar as an ordinary bathroom to the audience. It is an enclosed, private, safe place for her to explore her sexual imagination but also somewhere she can become isolated and trapped. The set plays with the wipe clean textures and smooth cold curves of porcelain against the soft wooly tufts of bathroom mats and towels. Imagine the ‘squeak’ of a rubber glove wiping the clean lines of a toilet cistern.  It is a stark, tidy and simple set, waiting almost aching to be dirtied up. I want to incorporate a sense of fun and surprise into the design that expresses the woman’s joy of cleanliness and her liberation in breaking it. 

Projection is an important part of this production and I have to make sure the set is a suitable canvas for Lubin Lone’s illustrations. Projecting straight onto the range of textures and angled surfaces will create a further fantastical dimension to the set. The style of illustration will be the main impact on the progression of the design throughout the play but I have made sure to incorporate further surprises along the way. 

Visually the set resembles a bathroom but it also needs to be structurally very strong. Hidden re-enforcing will allow the actor to interact with the bathroom suite in unusual ways, for example doing a headstand in the toilet bowl.  It is going to be a very physically demanding show, not just for Mel but for the set too and it needs to last throughout the fringe and beyond. 

Alice Wilson – Set and Costume design.

In a little over 2 weeks time we will begin full rehearsals for Sanitise and having done a huge amount of work around the technical and logistical elements of the project in recent weeks I'm ready to get my head back into the creative process of making the show. 

Sanitise is devised which means we do not have a script and we don't work with a writer. Myself and performer Melanie Jordan create the show by coming up with some ideas we're interested in and improvising around those ideas. Then we choose the bits we like and refine it until we are happy with the show. Devising for me is a thrilling combination of limitless creative possibilities and a perpetual fear that we might end up with nothing at all. The process is always a little different so as we are about to start rehearsals I thought it would be good to write a little about what I think we are going to do. 

GET OUT OF YOUR HEAD!
The central idea in Sanitise is that we are exploring someone's fantasies, her stream of consciousness, and so in the process we try to use improvising in a free way to see where our imaginations take us. In order to do this we have to 'get out of our heads' and experiment with ideas in a spontaneous way without thinking about it too much. We generate lots and lots of ideas and only then do we stop and talk about what we like and don't like. Some of my favourite bits in the show came completely unexpectedly out of improvising and playing around. 

THE SET FROM DAY ONE
We are very lucky that our designer Alice Wilson has worked super hard to make sure we can have the actual set in the rehearsal room from day one. This is a real treat as it means we can spend the first few days playing just to find out what the set can do. The bathroom is such an important part of the play, it is important that we make the most of the space and that Mel knows every inch of the bathroom as intimately as her character does. 

STARTING FROM POST-IT'S
Sanitise doesn't have any spoken words so at the moment the play exists as a series of post-it notes with the characters actions or thoughts written on them. A few weeks ago we were able to decide on how  to put these in order which was a big breakthrough! Although we have created shorter scratch versions of the show before we have decided that this time we will approach the play as if for the first time because we want to tell a whole story from beginning to end and not just tack new material onto the stuff we developed before. Luckily we have a lot of new people on the team so they will help us to let go. 

OUTSIDE EYES
One of the scariest but most important parts of the process will be the first 'stagger through'. This is a bit like a first draft where we will do a very rough run through of the whole show and have the whole production team and a few helpful outsiders come and watch. Even though we haven't polished a lot of the scenes we need to see how the show fits together as a whole and it's important to have someone who knows nothing about the show tell us what they understand from watching it. There are three important criteria- 1. Does it make sense? 2. Is it engaging? 3. Does it communicate what we want it to communicate? 

CERTAIN UNCERTAINTY
Above all else I know that at one point or another in the process it will feel impossible and as if we really are going to be left with nothing at all. In order for us to create something original, new and exciting we need to ride this period of uncertainty otherwise the show will be safe and predictable. I am telling myself this now, writing it for everyone to see, so that when we reach this point probably in mid-July, I will remember that it's all a normal part of devising theatre. 

Wish us luck! 
Caitlin 

Sanitise began life in my final year assessment while I was studying at Queen Margaret University in 2009 specialising in contemporary performance. I wanted to create a solo performance which spoke of topics that were floating around my mind at the time in a style that felt true to my tastes whilst also pushing myself as a performer. The first rendition of Sanitise presented a woman who identifies her sexuality through the target of her romantic affections, who was a doctor. Therefor her sexual expression was created in a physical and verbal language of medical terms and GP visits that the audience witness in her bathroom: the place she can be dirty and clean at the same time, the place where she can dance like no-one is watching. In her bathroom, her sanctuary, she practices how she will behave on a date with her doctor. Ultimately we learn that she is preparing for a date she’ll never have as she doesn’t actually have the confidence to be honest about her feelings and ask the doctor to join her for dinner. 

The story of this woman alone in her bathroom came from a process of physical discovery in the rehearsal room inspired by the way we can individually test we are alive, from the bodies response to touch to medical check ups. From a series of repeated movements a narrative began to emerge and turned into the starting point of the show. As I physical theatre practitioner my instinct when devising material is to start from movement as the first layer, then add narrative/text/objects as further layers. 

I found that when I allowed myself to move freely, to find physical sequences and text that come to mind instantly without challenge, what is presented in an amalgamation of influence from my direct environment, my outside world with all its people, problems and politics and my current emotional and mental state. As an artist I believe it is my job to channel these three elements to create performance work which is relevant to an audience whilst telling a story which contains my individual truth. This is not to say that Sanitise is auto-biographical, but it has grown from personal experiences, the experiences of other people I've met along the way and the political and socio landscape I have become an artist in. 

What continued to interest me after the first showing is questioning why this woman did not have the confidence to be sexually assertive. I think that partly the answer to this question lies within how woman are often perceived in British society, as part of a binary between squeaky clean or sexually promiscuous and therefore dirty. ‘A lady in the sheets, a whore between the sheets’. 

I was interested in how this saying can give more sexual freedom to men, a greater ownership over their sexuality, encouraging the opinion that men think about sex more than women do. Maybe this is often believed to be the case because it is more acceptable for a man to be vocal about his sexuality than it is for a woman? Where a man is a stud, a woman is a slut. In a society where what a woman chooses to wear can give her the label of ‘slut’ and be part of a justifiable argument for rape, no wonder the woman that was discovered in the studio back in 2009 did not feel completely in control of her sexuality! Her true desires are suppressed in search of a more ‘normal’ sexuality, the kind that everyone else seems to have, the kind you can buy from Anne Summers, the kind that is socially acceptable, the sanitary kind. 

In the most recent development of Sanitise, the image of mould within an otherwise perfectly clean bathroom represents human sexuality with all of its sweat, grunting and squelching; desirable to a person who is attracted to you, repulsive to someone who is not. This mould is what she is afraid to show the object of her affections, John, for fear that she will be judged or misunderstood. Instead she tries to adopt a sexuality which the media sells us as being an acceptable way of behaving in the bedroom. She buys the objects that she thinks will make her ‘sexy’, she presents her body in way that she has learned that ‘all men want’. Of course she inevitably fails as her true desires are crushed under the weight of sellable sex, sex as a commodity, capitalist sex. 

This theme has continued to run through the different incarnations of Sanitise over the past couple of years. In 2013 I asked director Caitlin Skinner to join me in bringing Sanitise to full production. Caitlin is a wonderful director with whom I have had many feminist debates (in fact, we went to Feminist Summer School together), I knew she would be the perfect collaborator. We have worked together on a few projects now, including co-founding collaborative theatre project Scrapyard, we have developed a strong working relationship in the rehearsal room and have definitely got rid of any inhibitions of talking about bumping uglies! Since Caitlin has been on board Sanitise has had three work-in-progress showings at Anatomy Night at Edinburgh’s Summerhall, The Arches Scratch Night in Glasgow and finally an FST facilitated critical response session at the Lyceum, Edinburgh. These three showings have allowed us to explore what is clean and what is dirty, literally and metaphorically, in front of an audience and gather feedback from their responses, an essential part of the process. Sanitise is non-verbal and pretty abstract at times so it is important that the audience can follow what is happening on stage; the opportunity to try out material was hugely beneficial. What is cohesive and meaningful to Caitlin and I may not be so to an audience, we learned this the hard way!

And now it is time to finish the show. I am so excited to gather together everything we have learned on this journey to produce Sanitise in its entirety. We have recruited a fantastic team to help us achieve this who have already brought lots of exiting ideas to the table. We’ve dance numbers, animated artworks and a magical set to play with where a bathroom becomes a hiding place for secret fantasies. Rehearsals start on 27th June and I can’t wait to get stuck in. I’ll keep you updated on how we get on. 

Melanie - Performer/ Co-creator