publication - Jumblies Theatre

Eric Sc hwindt’sPhilosophyofS u c c e s s f u lB u i l d i n gMy experience with creatingan enjoyable community music projectreminds me of building forts as a child.The key to making both work is to assesswhat materials you’ve got to work with,and what they are capable of creating, andthen to design a process that marries thesetwo to accomplish the goals of the project.At age seven I built a teepee out of driedsticks and empty concrete bags. It blewaway in a few hours. The next day I rebuiltit using string to tie up the branches andmud to stick the bags together. That fortlasted several days until the next rainfall.When, twenty years later, I approacheda group of community members at theDavenport Perth Community Centre with abunch of hand drums, lessons on 4/4 time,notation, and composition, with the intent ofbuilding a percussion ensemble, I really didnot know what “materials” I was going to bebuilding with. I designed an eight-step planto teach the group rhythm, notation, andplaying technique. I never got past lesson two.Although this may seem like an incompleteproject, or even failure, what I realize nowis that I was discovering what “materials” Iwas working with, or more precisely, whatthe groups’ abilities and limitations were.So, when I revisited the group to undertakea performance, I knew what we would becapable of doing, and together we composedgraphically notated percussive soundtracksfor poems they had created. This performancewas given on several different occasions inpublic, including a spot at the HarbourfrontCenter under the umbrella of The Bridge ofOne Hair, a play created by Jumblies Theatre.If I have learned anything about fortbuilding and community music, it is thatthe design and the materials must worktogether harmoniously. In order for theparticipants and the lead artist to enjoy theproject, very careful attention must be paidto the groups’ abilities, and what can be madeto develop and build on them. If a projectrequires more than what its participantsare capable of, it will become arduousand unenjoyable for everyone involved.Most recently I wrote music for We LiveHere, a play at the Pelham Park CommunityHousing complex, produced by Arts4All. Theplay involved songs, percussion, marching,props, and frequent changes of location. Iknew I could get my community choir tosing, and the DPNC ensemble to supplysome of the percussion, but the compositionsthemselves needed to be tailored for thoseperforming groups. Also, not all of the choirmembers could march comfortably, so weneeded to devise a meeting point for thosemembers, and a route that would get them tothe scenes in which they needed to perform.Out Of Place, Issue 1, Spring 2010, Jumblies Press20