Omnibus

Documentation of a performance tour of Totnes in a vintage

Transcript

1. O M N I B U S
2. 32 A Brief History of Omnibus Omnibus was a performance event which took place on May 16th 2010 in a 1950’’s Bedford OB bus which took the audience on a journey from Steamer Quay in Totnes, out into the village of Dartington, and back to Steamer Quay. After learning about walking theatre practices the Omnibus crew came together with a desire to make a piece of theatre using those practices whilst applying them to the context of a vintage bus which they had access to. The crew wanted to make a piece of performance which would be accessible and relevant to the community of artists studying and working at Dartington College of Arts, whilst not excluding the local people of Totnes. In creating the work they performed various exercises such as walking the route for inspiration and visiting Totnes Caring and Totnes Image bank to collect stories which they could re-tell on the bus. Unfortunately the event was unable to be completely public as the crew missed the deadline for the submission of public events to the police, but they tried their hardest to encourage the people whom they had collected stories from to come and see the performance. Unfortunately for various reasons many of those people were unable to come, but Omnibus still managed to attract a fairly varied audience from the local college, with a varied mix of disciplines and age ranges on every trip, along with a few locals who the crew had managed to get to join them. Through the collecting of stories and information the crew slowly came to realise that the framing theme for the performance needed to be pace and slowing down. One of the clients at Totnes caring mentioned that people didn’’t used to be so grumpy because people weren’’t always in a rush to get everywhere. Omnibus aimed to take the audience out of their lives for a brief moment and take them to another place, inviting them to pause, relax and slow down, to remove the rush from their lives for a short period of time. This document is the Omnibus drivers manual. It aims to capture some of the magic of the Omnibus experience and hold it on the page for you to enjoy, whilst explaining Omnibus and how it held together as a piece of theatre whilst also remaining within the context of this document - a driver’’s manual.
3. 6 Photographs: p8-9: Matthew Smallwood p12,13,16,17,18,19,20,21,31: Paul White p24,25,32,33: Peter Gri
   th This particular manual has been written from the perspective of Crew member Matt, who was heavily involved in the background workings of the project, performing the initial health and safety negotiations and regularly liaising with the driver to ensure that the planned routes for Omnibus would be able to be driven by the bus. As well as this he also worked as a collaborator to bring the project together with the rest of the Omnibus crew, participating in all group activities such as collaboratively creating a script for Omnibus and spending time with the crew performing research at Totnes image bank and Totnes caring. He also spent time doing his own independent research, for example looking into the work of artist’’s who have used busses and research into Totnes in the 1950’’s. He performed the role of driver for the crew’’s ‘‘in car’’ rehearsals and as the only driver in the crew, was able to discover previously unknown routes which the bus was able to use. Crew member Matt is responsible for the design, maintenance and written content of the Omnibus website. About the Author 31 performance, slightly unwilling to join in with the singing. ‘‘It’’s T.O.T.N.E.S’’, as a crew member states, ‘‘plain and simple’’, but I ask for how long? Globalisation and advancement are wonderful things, but I can’’t help but feel that in this postmodern age, as we infest ourselves with ubiquitous information and voices from around the world, we may loose that communal human touch. We become meta-tribal and individualised, and lose our communal nature. We may just need to slow down for a second or two, take a deep breath, smile, and say hi to a stranger in the same town, ‘‘plain and simple’’.All in all, a wonderful and enjoyable performance, but one with serious implications. 30 T.O.T.N.E.S: Plain and simple A Review By Jack Harris Walking up to the performance medium –– a 1951 Bedford Omnibus –– which started out at the Steamer Quay, I was suddenly struck by a fascinatingly anachronistic entity: beautiful and gleaming. It was here I was greeted by one of the ‘‘crew members’’ –– all dressed in fantastic costumes, presentable and provocative, or rather, sexual provocateur - who issued me a ticket for the bus from another period prop, very genuine I thought. After all the participants were seated on the bus, the performance started properly, and something quite unexpected occurred. The performance was introduced as a performance, as well as a journey. We were told we’’d be taken back to a quieter, and slower pace: that of the 1950’’s. Suddenly, any sense of realism was broken, this was reality –– in a strange and twisted way –– a laid back reality that was to characterise the rest of the work. The performance itself involved a journey around Totnes and Dartington, stopping o
   at various points for some amusing moments and theatrical highlights. The whole journey was held together by texts, monologues, and songs, that further elucidated a nostalgic image of the 1950s. Personal highlights included some very questionable, but all in good spirit singing, as well as a marvellously entertaining dance routine; moments upon which the bus created its own unique soundtrack from its struggling engine; and a hilarious moment where everybody was instructed how to, and then did, consume a Tunnock’’s Tea Cake –– a classic nostalgia. The performance wasn’’t without its hiccups however, but none of this seemed to be relevant. We all knew it was a performance, we were told, and the laid back environment created meant that such moments were forgiven. All in all, it was fun to just take a few minutes out, slow down, and enjoy myself. Enjoying ourselves by taking a few minutes, may seem like a weak basis for a piece of serious theatre though, but I wonder what the implications are? Such enjoyment had a bittersweet aftertaste. In stark juxtaposition to the communal-like bus and the reminiscent  ippancy, I was faced with a cold, fast paced urban world waiting for me as soon as I left. This may seem odd, as I would be getting o
   where I started, at Totnes, obviously a rural environment, but it was all the more emphasised because of it. Totnes is a town stuck between two poles: on the one hand it is very quaint and pretty, reminiscent you may pose; on the other it is polluted with all the tropes of modern life. Beautiful buildings are juxtaposed against roadworks on the high street; a supermarket injects itself into the otherwise market town; sharp and generic cars litter the streets, rather than standing like jewels as they did in the 1950’’s; a friendly greeting to a stranger is treated with amazement and called bohemian, rather than with compassion; people sit on the bus, in a 7 Contents Under the Bonnet Internal Layout Controls Route Fuel and Exhaust Systems Troubleshooting T.O.T.N.E.S plain and simple: a review by Jack Harris 8 12 18 22 24 28 30
4. 8 Under the Bonnet Audience don’’t understand  res In one piece of feedback it was suggested that the reading of the list of  res was slightly confusing and they didn’’t understand that it was a list of  res being read out If re-working the performance it may be a good idea to look at possible methods of restructuring this section to make it work better for the audiences understanding Final text length There is a feeling amongst the Omnibus crew that there may be too many closing texts for the performance (at the end, each crew member delivers a closing text) Condense the  nal texts into one shorter text which can be spoken by one crew member Other Problems Not much feedback A website was set up as a space to document the performance and also as a space in which our audience were invited to o
   er us feedback. The website has had 225 views, 99% of which come to the site directly by typing the address into their web browser, meaning that they must have come to the site after seeing the address on the back of a program, or hearing it announced in a presentation. However, only two pieces of feedback have been left online, both by individuals who did not see the performance. The chosen form for o
   ering feedback is through a comments box on a blog which requires the individual to submit their name and email address. Some people may be uncomfortable submitting this information, and may not wish to be identi ed when o
   ering feedback, so a better solution may have been to provide a link to a free data capture service such as the forms feature on google docs, which would allow the passengers to anonymously submit their thoughts about the experience to the crew. Troubleshooting Problem Solution Bus Problems The bus doesn’’t turn up The bus has broken down or has otherwise been delayed and is unable to carry passengers on the route. The Omnibus Crew have a shortened version of the route which they will walk the passengers along, pausing at similar locations to those on the planned route to share information with the passengers. The bus breaks down Due to the bus being an old vehicle it is more susceptible to breaking down than a modern vehicle Should the bus break down near to the start of the journey, the crew will continue with the shortened version of the journey on foot. Should the bus break down in Dartington village, the crew will escort passengers to a public bus stop where they will wait for the next bus back into Totnes, teaching passengers the actions to the ‘‘be bop a lula’’ song and keeping them entertained. Performance Problems Not getting the right mix of ‘‘fuel’’ Due to the nature and intentions of the project it was hoped that the audience would be a good mix of local people and students and sta
   from the college, unfortunately despite the best e
   orts of the Omnibus crew, the audience was mainly made up of sta
   and students. Unfortunately the crew had to come to a compromise and instead aimed for a mixed audience. They succeeded in having a child or young family at each performance whilst attracting sta
   and students from a wide range of disciplines, a few of whom had lived in Totnes for a number of years. If the event were to be re-performed it may be advisable to inform the police two weeks beforehand so that the event may be publicly advertised 9
5. 10 If you lift up the bonnet and peer into the inner workings of Omnibus you will  nd a series of components which  t snugly alongside each other to make Omnibus work. Text Omnibus is made up of a series of texts about Totnes and about Bus travel. The texts came from a various number of di
   erent sources. Some were written by crew members and generated in homework exercises which the crew set for each other. Other texts came from the conversations that the crew had with the clients at Totnes Caring and the volunteers at Totnes Image Bank, whilst another was gifted to the crew by a friend of crew member Katharina. The texts were formed together to create Omnibus in a session in which the crew sat down together, looked at the various texts and arranged them to create a script. Omnibus operates using text in two di
   erent ways. Text is used as a spoken device. Memorised texts are spoken to enhance the experience of passengers on the bus by providing them with tour guide style information about their surroundings. Text is also used as a written device, placed upon postcards which are distributed around the bus whilst the bus is in motion. They are used to provide information about the particular section of the route which the passengers are travelling along. Movement Omnibus operates using movement as a simple performance device. In places, speci c movements are used to place emphasis on words within texts. The most prominent example of movement which you may discover within the workings of Omnibus can be found when the crew are singing the song ‘‘be bop a lula’’. The song is accompanied by a series of actions which bear no relevance to the actual song, and were devised to accompany the text which can be found shortly after the song which is also accompanied by the same movements. Song Omnibus makes use of song as a means of entertaining the passengers. Each song within Omnibus has been selected either for it’’s lyrics or for the time period at which it was popular. Song is an essential part of the Omnibus experience as it helps enhance the sense of nostalgia felt by the passengers whilst also adhering to todays modern health and safety regulations, being a method of performance which the Omnibus crew may safely employ whilst the vehicle is in motion. Song is also a mode of performance which the Omnibus crew may be heard performing whilst the engine is running. 27 Totnes Station At Totnes station Omnibus always releases a large amount of exhaust fumes, which tend to be caused by the fact that the Omnibus crew leave the bus and dance around it singing ‘‘be bop a lula’’. Fumes on platform 2 tend to turn around to observe Omnibus whilst other fumes observe from within their own parked vehicles. One particular fume was witnessed at all three Omnibus trips and stood waving with his camera each time. Another fume was observed pausing within his own vehicle to allow his daughter to photograph and watch the event before driving o
   . The type of exhaust fumes caused at the station tend to be di
   erent to those found in Town, because the fumes witness the event at a static moment they tend to receive a larger amount of the Omnibus experience than the fumes in town which simply witness an old vehicle driving past. Tea Cake Break The tea cake break can sometimes attract fumes which are di cult to plan for and so may be more di cult to handle, for example during one trip, two fumes approached the bus and peered in through the windows whilst on another fumes appeared from the local houses to observe the Omnibus crew in action. Generally these fumes keep a respectful distance from the vehicle and in the instance of the fumes peering in through the windows the Omnibus crew simply continued with their primary aim of looking after the passengers within the vehicle and ensuring that their needs were met. If passengers choose to pay attention to the behaviour of the exhaust fumes outside of the vehicle rather than to the crew this is perfectly acceptable, and there are moments within the tea cake break at which the passengers may observe whatever may be going on around the bus, the presence of fumes does not tend to draw the attention away from the crews main moments of entertainment. 26 For Omnibus to operate e ciently it is important that you  ll it with a broad mix of passengers. To ensure optimum performance it is preferable that some of these should be local people, but Omnibus can still operate e
   ectively on fuel made up mainly of those with an interest in the arts. Crew member Rachael was in charge of ensuring that we had enough fuel for each trip, e-mailing passengers to con rm their booking and texting them on the day of the trip to remind them that they had booked a place and should turn up at a certain time. Once Omnibus has enough fuel for the journey the trip is able to begin. As the fuel pushes the inner workings of Omnibus into action a by-product is produced in the form of an external audience for the piece who respond to the waving of passengers and crew and to the sight of the bus. Mostly these exhaust fumes tend to have a positive e
   ect upon their environment causing smiles and general happiness amongst passers by, however Omnibus does unfortunately also cause a minimal amount of pollutants to be released into the atmosphere in the form of swearing and rude gestures. However, it should be emphasised that this particular by-product is very rare and short lived. There are a number of locations along the route at which Omnibus produces fairly large amounts of exhaust fumes, these are noted below. Steamer Quay - The Plains - Morrisons Along this particular section of the route there are often many small pockets of exhaust fumes, increasingly fuelled by the passengers joining the crew in waving out of the window. Some fumes see the bus a number of times, and their waving tends to become more pronounced on seeing the vehicle for the second and third time. Some of the fumes may have previously been passengers, or are about to become passengers on Omnibus causing them to experience the event from two di
   erent perspectives. One particular fume passed on this message to Crew Member Matt via mobile phone: ‘‘That was nice, the driver started waving, so I waved back and then the whole bus started waving’’. Omnibus does not always produce exhaust fumes on some sections of this route, and in some places it is likely that Omnibus will produce a lot of fumes on one trip, but none on another. This is not a problem for the crew, as Omnibus only requires a few small pockets of fumes close to Steamer Quay to encourage the passengers to focus their attention outside of the window and into the streets of Totnes. 11 Gifts Omnibus contains two ‘‘gift moments’’ when items are passed out to audience members which they may keep. The gifts take the form of burnt postcards and gift bags containing a tea cake and an information booklet for the passengers. The postcards act to enrich the previous text about  res through their aesthetic and their smell whilst also introducing new text to the passengers. The gift bags contain items which the passengers are invited to use at the break stop - tea cakes, tunnocks tea cakes in particular as their packaging hasn’’t changed for many, many years causing them to evoke a feeling of nostalgia. The passing around of cards is designed to evoke memories of school trips and lessons - take one and pass it back - whilst the handing out of gift bags is a reference to cabin crew style treatment which may be received on an aeroplane. In uences If you peer even more closely into the inner workings of Omnibus it may be possible to see some of the things which in uenced the crew. In making Omnibus the crew were inspired by the practice of artists such as Mike Pearson and his work Bubbling Tom, which took the form of a leisurely stroll through the village of Hibaldstow pausing at speci c locations to recount childhood memories (Heddon, 2002, p176). The crew also spent some time looking at the archiving work of Jenny Savage who interviewed the people of Cardi
   about their life there, always starting with the same simple open question ‘‘how long have you lived in Cardi
   ?’’ (Savage, 2010, unpaginted). The work of Pearson and Savage helped to in uenced the crews interviewing strategies with Totnes Caring and their  nal structuring of the texts for performance. The decision to include songs in the performance was strongly in uenced by watching Lone Twin’’s Catastrophe Trilogy which successfully employed song as a device for entertaining an audience. The crew also looked at Wrights and Sights documentation of The Quay Thing in which Cathy Turner writes about how initially placing images into sights was quite unsatisfactory (Turner, 2000, p31). This steered the crew away from their initial thoughts of placing images within various sights along the route. Sources Heddon, D, 2002, Performing The Archive, Performance Research 7 (4) p176 Savage, J, 2005, Anecdotal City: Method/Process [Online] Date accessed: 20/05/10 Available from: http://www.anecdotalcity.com/web/method.html Turner, C, 2000, Framing the Site, in Wrights and Sights, 2000, The Quay Thing Documented, p31
6. 12 25 24 Fuel and Exhaust Systems 13 Internal Layout
7. 14 A. Driver B. Emergency Exit C. Crew Member Katharina D. Crew Member Anne E. Central Aisle* F. Crew Member Rachael G. Crew Member Matt H. Main Entrance and Exit I. Driver’’s Assistant *the central aisle has enough width for one crew member to stand in at any time, enough length to comfortably accommodate all four crew members, and enough height to accommodate a condensed version of the ‘‘be bop a lula’’ movements. 23 Dartington Primary School Tea Cake Break Steamer Quay Dartington Primary School At the primary school, passengers are told about crew member Anne’’s journey to school in the Harz mountains, whilst crew member Matt speaks a text about the experience of bus travel. Dartington Primary School - Tea Cake Break During this section of the journey the Omnibus crew hand out goodie bags containing a tea cake and an information booklet. Tea Cake Break At this point the bus pulls over into a quiet lay-by on a country lane where passengers are invited to consume a tea cake, and shown various humorous methods for eating a tea cake by the Omnibus crew who then invite them to breath in the fresh country air before serenading them with their own rendition of ‘‘Don’’t Fence me In’’ Tea Cake Break - Steamer Quay The crew continue to sing ‘‘don’’t fence me in’’ whilst the bus drives into Totnes before launching into the Omnibus rendition of ‘‘Show me the way to go home’’ which passengers are invited to join in with. At Steamer Quay four closing texts are presented to the passengers about the bus and life in 2010. 22 Route Steamer Quay The Plains Totnes Station Steamer Quay At Steamer Quay passengers are welcomed on board, given a brief introduction to the history of the bus and invited to imagine Totnes in the 1950’’s The Plains At the plains, passengers are told the story of a woman who arrived at the same location many years ago after reading the name Totnes on a bus roll blind. She still lives in the town today. Totnes Station At Totnes Station the crew leave the bus singing ‘‘be bop a lula’’ (which they have been humming and whistling along the way) outside the now closed Creameries Social Club, before boarding the bus, listing all of the  res that have occurred in Totnes, speaking a text about a  re, and singing ‘‘Totnes Burning’’ Totnes Station - Dartington Primary School On this section of the route burnt postcards are handed out containing small pieces of information about the section of road, along with a few memories gathered at Totnes caring. 15 A B C D E F G H I
8. 16 The internal layout of Omnibus has been designed to provide passengers with the maximum level of comfort, there is always a crew member close by to provide them with any assistance which they may require, and also to calm them down and reassure them in the event of an emergency. Omnibus has one aisle which must be kept clear of bags and personal possessions to allow crew members to be able to walk along it, stand or move on it to deliver texts, and also use it as a space to dance and sing in. Some of the uses for the aisle are displayed in the following images. Crew member Rachael delivers a text whilst crew member Anne clicks 21 C C. Hand and Arm - these combined controls have many uses within Omnibus. They may be used to wave at passers by, focusing the attention of passengers to the world outside of the bus, they may also be used to convey gestures and actions whilst also serving a practical purpose as a device which may be used for the handing out of goodie bags. 20 A B A. Eyes - used to communicate with other Omnibus crew members. A sideways glance may indicate that it is time to begin whistling, or that it is time to hand out goodie bags. B. Mouth - used to convey a permanent ‘‘everything is going to be ok’’ smile to reassure the passengers and make them feel comfortable. In the event of the bus going too fast or breaking suddenly this smile should increase in size and be displayed to all of the passengers. 17 Crew member Anne greets the passengers before taking her seat Crew member Matt serenades the passengers with the Omnibus rendition of ‘‘Don’’t Fence me In’’
9. 18 19 Controls
10. 16 The internal layout of Omnibus has been designed to provide passengers with the maximum level of comfort, there is always a crew member close by to provide them with any assistance which they may require, and also to calm them down and reassure them in the event of an emergency. Omnibus has one aisle which must be kept clear of bags and personal possessions to allow crew members to be able to walk along it, stand or move on it to deliver texts, and also use it as a space to dance and sing in. Some of the uses for the aisle are displayed in the following images. Crew member Rachael delivers a text whilst crew member Anne clicks 21 C C. Hand and Arm - these combined controls have many uses within Omnibus. They may be used to wave at passers by, focusing the attention of passengers to the world outside of the bus, they may also be used to convey gestures and actions whilst also serving a practical purpose as a device which may be used for the handing out of goodie bags. 20 A B A. Eyes - used to communicate with other Omnibus crew members. A sideways glance may indicate that it is time to begin whistling, or that it is time to hand out goodie bags. B. Mouth - used to convey a permanent ‘‘everything is going to be ok’’ smile to reassure the passengers and make them feel comfortable. In the event of the bus going too fast or breaking suddenly this smile should increase in size and be displayed to all of the passengers. 17 Crew member Anne greets the passengers before taking her seat Crew member Matt serenades the passengers with the Omnibus rendition of ‘‘Don’’t Fence me In’’
11. 14 A. Driver B. Emergency Exit C. Crew Member Katharina D. Crew Member Anne E. Central Aisle* F. Crew Member Rachael G. Crew Member Matt H. Main Entrance and Exit I. Driver’’s Assistant *the central aisle has enough width for one crew member to stand in at any time, enough length to comfortably accommodate all four crew members, and enough height to accommodate a condensed version of the ‘‘be bop a lula’’ movements. 23 Dartington Primary School Tea Cake Break Steamer Quay Dartington Primary School At the primary school, passengers are told about crew member Anne’’s journey to school in the Harz mountains, whilst crew member Matt speaks a text about the experience of bus travel. Dartington Primary School - Tea Cake Break During this section of the journey the Omnibus crew hand out goodie bags containing a tea cake and an information booklet. Tea Cake Break At this point the bus pulls over into a quiet lay-by on a country lane where passengers are invited to consume a tea cake, and shown various humorous methods for eating a tea cake by the Omnibus crew who then invite them to breath in the fresh country air before serenading them with their own rendition of ‘‘Don’’t Fence me In’’ Tea Cake Break - Steamer Quay The crew continue to sing ‘‘don’’t fence me in’’ whilst the bus drives into Totnes before launching into the Omnibus rendition of ‘‘Show me the way to go home’’ which passengers are invited to join in with. At Steamer Quay four closing texts are presented to the passengers about the bus and life in 2010. 22 Route Steamer Quay The Plains Totnes Station Steamer Quay At Steamer Quay passengers are welcomed on board, given a brief introduction to the history of the bus and invited to imagine Totnes in the 1950’’s The Plains At the plains, passengers are told the story of a woman who arrived at the same location many years ago after reading the name Totnes on a bus roll blind. She still lives in the town today. Totnes Station At Totnes Station the crew leave the bus singing ‘‘be bop a lula’’ (which they have been humming and whistling along the way) outside the now closed Creameries Social Club, before boarding the bus, listing all of the  res that have occurred in Totnes, speaking a text about a  re, and singing ‘‘Totnes Burning’’ Totnes Station - Dartington Primary School On this section of the route burnt postcards are handed out containing small pieces of information about the section of road, along with a few memories gathered at Totnes caring. 15 A B C D E F G H I
12. 12 25 24 Fuel and Exhaust Systems 13 Internal Layout
13. 10 If you lift up the bonnet and peer into the inner workings of Omnibus you will  nd a series of components which  t snugly alongside each other to make Omnibus work. Text Omnibus is made up of a series of texts about Totnes and about Bus travel. The texts came from a various number of di
    erent sources. Some were written by crew members and generated in homework exercises which the crew set for each other. Other texts came from the conversations that the crew had with the clients at Totnes Caring and the volunteers at Totnes Image Bank, whilst another was gifted to the crew by a friend of crew member Katharina. The texts were formed together to create Omnibus in a session in which the crew sat down together, looked at the various texts and arranged them to create a script. Omnibus operates using text in two di
    erent ways. Text is used as a spoken device. Memorised texts are spoken to enhance the experience of passengers on the bus by providing them with tour guide style information about their surroundings. Text is also used as a written device, placed upon postcards which are distributed around the bus whilst the bus is in motion. They are used to provide information about the particular section of the route which the passengers are travelling along. Movement Omnibus operates using movement as a simple performance device. In places, speci c movements are used to place emphasis on words within texts. The most prominent example of movement which you may discover within the workings of Omnibus can be found when the crew are singing the song ‘‘be bop a lula’’. The song is accompanied by a series of actions which bear no relevance to the actual song, and were devised to accompany the text which can be found shortly after the song which is also accompanied by the same movements. Song Omnibus makes use of song as a means of entertaining the passengers. Each song within Omnibus has been selected either for it’’s lyrics or for the time period at which it was popular. Song is an essential part of the Omnibus experience as it helps enhance the sense of nostalgia felt by the passengers whilst also adhering to todays modern health and safety regulations, being a method of performance which the Omnibus crew may safely employ whilst the vehicle is in motion. Song is also a mode of performance which the Omnibus crew may be heard performing whilst the engine is running. 27 Totnes Station At Totnes station Omnibus always releases a large amount of exhaust fumes, which tend to be caused by the fact that the Omnibus crew leave the bus and dance around it singing ‘‘be bop a lula’’. Fumes on platform 2 tend to turn around to observe Omnibus whilst other fumes observe from within their own parked vehicles. One particular fume was witnessed at all three Omnibus trips and stood waving with his camera each time. Another fume was observed pausing within his own vehicle to allow his daughter to photograph and watch the event before driving o
    . The type of exhaust fumes caused at the station tend to be di
    erent to those found in Town, because the fumes witness the event at a static moment they tend to receive a larger amount of the Omnibus experience than the fumes in town which simply witness an old vehicle driving past. Tea Cake Break The tea cake break can sometimes attract fumes which are di cult to plan for and so may be more di cult to handle, for example during one trip, two fumes approached the bus and peered in through the windows whilst on another fumes appeared from the local houses to observe the Omnibus crew in action. Generally these fumes keep a respectful distance from the vehicle and in the instance of the fumes peering in through the windows the Omnibus crew simply continued with their primary aim of looking after the passengers within the vehicle and ensuring that their needs were met. If passengers choose to pay attention to the behaviour of the exhaust fumes outside of the vehicle rather than to the crew this is perfectly acceptable, and there are moments within the tea cake break at which the passengers may observe whatever may be going on around the bus, the presence of fumes does not tend to draw the attention away from the crews main moments of entertainment. 26 For Omnibus to operate e ciently it is important that you  ll it with a broad mix of passengers. To ensure optimum performance it is preferable that some of these should be local people, but Omnibus can still operate e
    ectively on fuel made up mainly of those with an interest in the arts. Crew member Rachael was in charge of ensuring that we had enough fuel for each trip, e-mailing passengers to con rm their booking and texting them on the day of the trip to remind them that they had booked a place and should turn up at a certain time. Once Omnibus has enough fuel for the journey the trip is able to begin. As the fuel pushes the inner workings of Omnibus into action a by-product is produced in the form of an external audience for the piece who respond to the waving of passengers and crew and to the sight of the bus. Mostly these exhaust fumes tend to have a positive e
    ect upon their environment causing smiles and general happiness amongst passers by, however Omnibus does unfortunately also cause a minimal amount of pollutants to be released into the atmosphere in the form of swearing and rude gestures. However, it should be emphasised that this particular by-product is very rare and short lived. There are a number of locations along the route at which Omnibus produces fairly large amounts of exhaust fumes, these are noted below. Steamer Quay - The Plains - Morrisons Along this particular section of the route there are often many small pockets of exhaust fumes, increasingly fuelled by the passengers joining the crew in waving out of the window. Some fumes see the bus a number of times, and their waving tends to become more pronounced on seeing the vehicle for the second and third time. Some of the fumes may have previously been passengers, or are about to become passengers on Omnibus causing them to experience the event from two di
    erent perspectives. One particular fume passed on this message to Crew Member Matt via mobile phone: ‘‘That was nice, the driver started waving, so I waved back and then the whole bus started waving’’. Omnibus does not always produce exhaust fumes on some sections of this route, and in some places it is likely that Omnibus will produce a lot of fumes on one trip, but none on another. This is not a problem for the crew, as Omnibus only requires a few small pockets of fumes close to Steamer Quay to encourage the passengers to focus their attention outside of the window and into the streets of Totnes. 11 Gifts Omnibus contains two ‘‘gift moments’’ when items are passed out to audience members which they may keep. The gifts take the form of burnt postcards and gift bags containing a tea cake and an information booklet for the passengers. The postcards act to enrich the previous text about  res through their aesthetic and their smell whilst also introducing new text to the passengers. The gift bags contain items which the passengers are invited to use at the break stop - tea cakes, tunnocks tea cakes in particular as their packaging hasn’’t changed for many, many years causing them to evoke a feeling of nostalgia. The passing around of cards is designed to evoke memories of school trips and lessons - take one and pass it back - whilst the handing out of gift bags is a reference to cabin crew style treatment which may be received on an aeroplane. In uences If you peer even more closely into the inner workings of Omnibus it may be possible to see some of the things which in uenced the crew. In making Omnibus the crew were inspired by the practice of artists such as Mike Pearson and his work Bubbling Tom, which took the form of a leisurely stroll through the village of Hibaldstow pausing at speci c locations to recount childhood memories (Heddon, 2002, p176). The crew also spent some time looking at the archiving work of Jenny Savage who interviewed the people of Cardi
    about their life there, always starting with the same simple open question ‘‘how long have you lived in Cardi
    ?’’ (Savage, 2010, unpaginted). The work of Pearson and Savage helped to in uenced the crews interviewing strategies with Totnes Caring and their  nal structuring of the texts for performance. The decision to include songs in the performance was strongly in uenced by watching Lone Twin’’s Catastrophe Trilogy which successfully employed song as a device for entertaining an audience. The crew also looked at Wrights and Sights documentation of The Quay Thing in which Cathy Turner writes about how initially placing images into sights was quite unsatisfactory (Turner, 2000, p31). This steered the crew away from their initial thoughts of placing images within various sights along the route. Sources Heddon, D, 2002, Performing The Archive, Performance Research 7 (4) p176 Savage, J, 2005, Anecdotal City: Method/Process [Online] Date accessed: 20/05/10 Available from: http://www.anecdotalcity.com/web/method.html Turner, C, 2000, Framing the Site, in Wrights and Sights, 2000, The Quay Thing Documented, p31
14. 8 Under the Bonnet Audience don’’t understand  res In one piece of feedback it was suggested that the reading of the list of  res was slightly confusing and they didn’’t understand that it was a list of  res being read out If re-working the performance it may be a good idea to look at possible methods of restructuring this section to make it work better for the audiences understanding Final text length There is a feeling amongst the Omnibus crew that there may be too many closing texts for the performance (at the end, each crew member delivers a closing text) Condense the  nal texts into one shorter text which can be spoken by one crew member Other Problems Not much feedback A website was set up as a space to document the performance and also as a space in which our audience were invited to o
    er us feedback. The website has had 225 views, 99% of which come to the site directly by typing the address into their web browser, meaning that they must have come to the site after seeing the address on the back of a program, or hearing it announced in a presentation. However, only two pieces of feedback have been left online, both by individuals who did not see the performance. The chosen form for o
    ering feedback is through a comments box on a blog which requires the individual to submit their name and email address. Some people may be uncomfortable submitting this information, and may not wish to be identi ed when o
    ering feedback, so a better solution may have been to provide a link to a free data capture service such as the forms feature on google docs, which would allow the passengers to anonymously submit their thoughts about the experience to the crew. Troubleshooting Problem Solution Bus Problems The bus doesn’’t turn up The bus has broken down or has otherwise been delayed and is unable to carry passengers on the route. The Omnibus Crew have a shortened version of the route which they will walk the passengers along, pausing at similar locations to those on the planned route to share information with the passengers. The bus breaks down Due to the bus being an old vehicle it is more susceptible to breaking down than a modern vehicle Should the bus break down near to the start of the journey, the crew will continue with the shortened version of the journey on foot. Should the bus break down in Dartington village, the crew will escort passengers to a public bus stop where they will wait for the next bus back into Totnes, teaching passengers the actions to the ‘‘be bop a lula’’ song and keeping them entertained. Performance Problems Not getting the right mix of ‘‘fuel’’ Due to the nature and intentions of the project it was hoped that the audience would be a good mix of local people and students and sta
    from the college, unfortunately despite the best e
    orts of the Omnibus crew, the audience was mainly made up of sta
    and students. Unfortunately the crew had to come to a compromise and instead aimed for a mixed audience. They succeeded in having a child or young family at each performance whilst attracting sta
    and students from a wide range of disciplines, a few of whom had lived in Totnes for a number of years. If the event were to be re-performed it may be advisable to inform the police two weeks beforehand so that the event may be publicly advertised 9
15. 6 Photographs: p8-9: Matthew Smallwood p12,13,16,17,18,19,20,21,31: Paul White p24,25,32,33: Peter Gri
    th This particular manual has been written from the perspective of Crew member Matt, who was heavily involved in the background workings of the project, performing the initial health and safety negotiations and regularly liaising with the driver to ensure that the planned routes for Omnibus would be able to be driven by the bus. As well as this he also worked as a collaborator to bring the project together with the rest of the Omnibus crew, participating in all group activities such as collaboratively creating a script for Omnibus and spending time with the crew performing research at Totnes image bank and Totnes caring. He also spent time doing his own independent research, for example looking into the work of artist’’s who have used busses and research into Totnes in the 1950’’s. He performed the role of driver for the crew’’s ‘‘in car’’ rehearsals and as the only driver in the crew, was able to discover previously unknown routes which the bus was able to use. Crew member Matt is responsible for the design, maintenance and written content of the Omnibus website. About the Author 31 performance, slightly unwilling to join in with the singing. ‘‘It’’s T.O.T.N.E.S’’, as a crew member states, ‘‘plain and simple’’, but I ask for how long? Globalisation and advancement are wonderful things, but I can’’t help but feel that in this postmodern age, as we infest ourselves with ubiquitous information and voices from around the world, we may loose that communal human touch. We become meta-tribal and individualised, and lose our communal nature. We may just need to slow down for a second or two, take a deep breath, smile, and say hi to a stranger in the same town, ‘‘plain and simple’’.All in all, a wonderful and enjoyable performance, but one with serious implications. 30 T.O.T.N.E.S: Plain and simple A Review By Jack Harris Walking up to the performance medium –– a 1951 Bedford Omnibus –– which started out at the Steamer Quay, I was suddenly struck by a fascinatingly anachronistic entity: beautiful and gleaming. It was here I was greeted by one of the ‘‘crew members’’ –– all dressed in fantastic costumes, presentable and provocative, or rather, sexual provocateur - who issued me a ticket for the bus from another period prop, very genuine I thought. After all the participants were seated on the bus, the performance started properly, and something quite unexpected occurred. The performance was introduced as a performance, as well as a journey. We were told we’’d be taken back to a quieter, and slower pace: that of the 1950’’s. Suddenly, any sense of realism was broken, this was reality –– in a strange and twisted way –– a laid back reality that was to characterise the rest of the work. The performance itself involved a journey around Totnes and Dartington, stopping o
    at various points for some amusing moments and theatrical highlights. The whole journey was held together by texts, monologues, and songs, that further elucidated a nostalgic image of the 1950s. Personal highlights included some very questionable, but all in good spirit singing, as well as a marvellously entertaining dance routine; moments upon which the bus created its own unique soundtrack from its struggling engine; and a hilarious moment where everybody was instructed how to, and then did, consume a Tunnock’’s Tea Cake –– a classic nostalgia. The performance wasn’’t without its hiccups however, but none of this seemed to be relevant. We all knew it was a performance, we were told, and the laid back environment created meant that such moments were forgiven. All in all, it was fun to just take a few minutes out, slow down, and enjoy myself. Enjoying ourselves by taking a few minutes, may seem like a weak basis for a piece of serious theatre though, but I wonder what the implications are? Such enjoyment had a bittersweet aftertaste. In stark juxtaposition to the communal-like bus and the reminiscent  ippancy, I was faced with a cold, fast paced urban world waiting for me as soon as I left. This may seem odd, as I would be getting o
    where I started, at Totnes, obviously a rural environment, but it was all the more emphasised because of it. Totnes is a town stuck between two poles: on the one hand it is very quaint and pretty, reminiscent you may pose; on the other it is polluted with all the tropes of modern life. Beautiful buildings are juxtaposed against roadworks on the high street; a supermarket injects itself into the otherwise market town; sharp and generic cars litter the streets, rather than standing like jewels as they did in the 1950’’s; a friendly greeting to a stranger is treated with amazement and called bohemian, rather than with compassion; people sit on the bus, in a 7 Contents Under the Bonnet Internal Layout Controls Route Fuel and Exhaust Systems Troubleshooting T.O.T.N.E.S plain and simple: a review by Jack Harris 8 12 18 22 24 28 30
16. 33 32 A Brief History of Omnibus Omnibus was a performance event which took place on May 16th 2010 in a 1950’’s Bedford OB bus which took the audience on a journey from Steamer Quay in Totnes, out into the village of Dartington, and back to Steamer Quay. After learning about walking theatre practices the Omnibus crew came together with a desire to make a piece of theatre using those practices whilst applying them to the context of a vintage bus which they had access to. The crew wanted to make a piece of performance which would be accessible and relevant to the community of artists studying and working at Dartington College of Arts, whilst not excluding the local people of Totnes. In creating the work they performed various exercises such as walking the route for inspiration and visiting Totnes Caring and Totnes Image bank to collect stories which they could re-tell on the bus. Unfortunately the event was unable to be completely public as the crew missed the deadline for the submission of public events to the police, but they tried their hardest to encourage the people whom they had collected stories from to come and see the performance. Unfortunately for various reasons many of those people were unable to come, but Omnibus still managed to attract a fairly varied audience from the local college, with a varied mix of disciplines and age ranges on every trip, along with a few locals who the crew had managed to get to join them. Through the collecting of stories and information the crew slowly came to realise that the framing theme for the performance needed to be pace and slowing down. One of the clients at Totnes caring mentioned that people didn’’t used to be so grumpy because people weren’’t always in a rush to get everywhere. Omnibus aimed to take the audience out of their lives for a brief moment and take them to another place, inviting them to pause, relax and slow down, to remove the rush from their lives for a short period of time. This document is the Omnibus drivers manual. It aims to capture some of the magic of the Omnibus experience and hold it on the page for you to enjoy, whilst explaining Omnibus and how it held together as a piece of theatre whilst also remaining within the context of this document - a driver’’s manual.
17. O M N I B U S For further information visit omnibusperformance.wordpress.com