Katie Mitchell

Katie Mitchell is a devising practitioner who at heart is a feminist. Her work focuses on the female experience and normally are adaptations of modern texts by radical female writers (such as Alice Birch and Sarah Cane), old novels or traditional male texts which are re-centred to marginalised female characters. 

As well as naturalism Katie Mitchell uses live cinema, this involves the use of cameras on stage to amplify the female experience on stage. 

Naturalism:

Naturalistic in all aspects, sound, lighting acting, set and costume. "I use of these elements to build naturalistic worlds which are very filmic in their use of visual and sound detail", this is a technique used to make the audience forget they are in a theatre. Through the use of naturalism she is able to enhance the female experience. This is because it allows her to focus on delivering a feminist interpretation rather then adhering to the intentions of the author (mainly for the traditionally male texts). For example, in 'The Women of Troy' the action is relocated to a contemporary abandoned warehouse. Katie Mitchell uses six layers to generate naturalistic acting...

• Character Biography - The incidence in the characters past that influences their actions. E.g. a character who is very tidy and organised all the time would have been brought up in a strict household. 
• Place - Place describes the location of the action in the scene, not just in a house but where in a house. In a room, a corridor, in a public area. This will affect the physicality of the characters. 
• Time - This is the year, season, day of the week and time of day the scene is taking place. If a scene is set in the night during the summer outside then it will most likely be humid and mosquitos may be present. Costume will be affected by year. 
• Immediate Circumstances - Describes the incidence that happened in the twenty four hours before the scenes starts. This can be the scene before or a memory. 
• Events - Changes within the scene which changes the thoughts, feelings or actions of all the characters. This can be small actions like a text message or a gesture. How might the characters be affected. This can also being influenced by the immediate circumstances. 
• Intentions - What the character wants the other characters to do feel or say. If a character wants another character to do something or tell them something. 

Exercise: Have an actor do a simple action such as sitting down on a chair. First they can do this as themselves without any of the layers. Then one by one add a layer. starting with the character biography, age, sex etc. 

Non  Naturalism: 

Katie Mitchell also utilises non naturalistic techniques to punctuate significant events, interrupt scenes or invite the audience into the mind of a female or a marginalised character. This is normally through the use of slow motion, simultaneous scenes and surreal sequences. The set can also be used as symbolism. In one of the plays the room is filled up to the shins with water to represent the characters mental state being flooded and overwhelmed. This is normally not noticed by the actor. 

Live Cinema:

Cameras are used to amplify the female experience. Live cinema is an extension of her interests in psychological realism. The onstage action is filmed and edited live then projected on the screen above. Actors and technicians can be seen on stage. Action can happen is multiple locations and they can also be moving such as in car and train. Live cinema sits between film and theatre and has been described as an entirely new form of theatre. Voice overs are also often used in live cinema. They describe the thoughts inside the characters head. You can use projections to make the thoughts more obvious such as projection the subject of the thought. Foley is the sound effects made by the characters costume, props and set they interact with. Cameras can bring the audience closer to the marginalised characters and also allow for many different perspective son one scene as well as allowing the technicians to hide special effects behind the cameras such as fans for wind. The editing in live cinema is normally cutting from one camera to another. Motion/ a moving location can be emulated by lights and sound to give the impression the object is moving for example a car. 

(Last Para is lot of notes from the video listed below)

Theatre, N. (n.d.). Practitioners in Practice : Katie Mitchell (film) | National Theatre. [online] www.nationaltheatre.org.uk. Available at: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/learn-explore/schools/teacher-resources/practitioners-in-practice-katie-mitchell-film/.