The Ferret
DO-IT-YOURSELF CULTURE
First of all, a brief definition. The DIY mentality is a reaction to all the people who say NO!, that can't be done. We've all met them. They can be found in most walks of life, though council workers (with one notable exception), and bank managers have made this territory something of their own. The latter are particularly good no-ologists and have elated it to an art form. I believe that one of the qualifications for the job is a degree in no-ology. But no-ologists are everywhere and their mission is a simple one - to stop the 'yes' people.
Now, the 'yes' people are the ones that say just because it's not been done before, doesn't mean it can't be done. They're the ones that view barriers as reasons to continue, not stop. In fact, these are the very same people who have created the most outstanding contributions to music, film, paintings, publishing(!), whatever, throughout the course of history.
Here's a principal example: About three years ago, I had a sudden desire to write a play. No particular reason. It was raining, the telly was shite, I was bored, so I thought what the hey, I'll write a play. I'd never done it before, didn't have an English A level, hadn't even got a dictionary, but it seemed a good idea at the time. It took me about two weeks to write and when the thing was finished I then throught there isn't much point in having an unperformed play hanging around the wardrobe, might as well put it on. So I got some people together and we did. After that, the telly was still shite, so I wrote another one and we put that on, as well and that is basically how the Ferret Theatre Company (FTC) came into existance.
You might have seen some of our work. We perform all over the Isle of Wight and, when we can, on the mainland. We recently got a small shed-full of wonga from the lottery, to perform some more. Fortunately, 'yes' people do pop up in the right places sometimes.
Apart from the loud parping of trumpets and sundry brass instruments that I have just done above, there is some method in my madness. I believe that what we are doing at FTC is simply a continuation of what folks have been doing in other fields quite a lot recently. And this really is something to parp about, because it's the future of the entertainment world. A bold statement like that needs seasoning with elucidation, so here goes:
In essence, the DIY culture was initiated by the punk movement. This was a reaction agains thte complacency of a moribund music business. Young people looked at the remote, tax-exiled dinosaur rock acts, who could play arpeggio ninths in 9/8 time, but had lost all semblance of passion in the process. A lot of bands that sprang up couldn't play their instruments too well, but that was all of it. The main thing was to be immediate, to articulate the dissatisafaction they and their peers felt about the prevailing music of their time. So they went out and did it.
This is a simplication I know, but the point I'm making is that the punk movement was a watershed. It encouraged the likes of me and you to believe that meaningful, even great art, could be created by anyone, there was no real rules. The ones that did exist were only there to maintain the status quo. They were barriers. That was all. Put in place, more often than not, the existing order to prevent change. Once you crossed the Rubicon, the possibilities were endless, there was no need to return, nothing to be scared of. The limits were merely in the mind. This last statement sounds like a cliche and of course, it is, precisely because it contains such a truism.
'Yes' people everywhere should celebrate the punk movement in much the same way as most of us also celebrate the removal of Thatcher from office, in 1991. If there was ever a 'No' person, she was it. But the no's don't have it in this contest. All it takes is enough Yes's to shout above the din.
What's interesting in music, is how this DIY mentality has spread to so many other musical styles. It was the dance movement that really took up the call - the whole business of bedroom boffins purchasing a few bits of basic equipment and creating a genuinely new type of music. Drum'n'bass is the culmination of this dialectical process and most proponents of it are quick to pay homage to the inspiration they got from the Pistols et al.
If we look into the world of films, we can see the influence of the punk ethos here as well. Over the last ten years or so, there has been a rapid increase in punks' visual equivalent, independant film making to the extant where it is now a genre in it's own right. Tarantino, Rodriquez (El Mariachi, Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn), Richard Linklater (Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, Suburbia) and Alison Anders (Gas Food Lodging, Mi Vida Loca) have all basically just gone out and made a movie. None of them went to film school. All of them are talented, for sure, but they learnt their craft through applying it practically, that is making films.
Tarantino's rise to fame and fortune is a classic tale of the 'Yes' man triumphing in the face of the concerted efforts of no's. Somehow, all the barrriers such as money, money, money and you can't do that it won't work, were overcome. The end result was a whole new style of film - an amalgamation of all that had gone before, certainly, but with a freshness and originality that had previously not been seen. As with music, people have taken up the challenge he laid down and said "I can do that as well."
So, to return to the parping, it should be a little clearer as to what we are trying to achieve at FTC. I'm not suggesting that we have discovered DIY theatre, merely that we see the possibilities of it and are attempting to expand on them. What I have found is that as with all other examples I have quoted, there is an audience out there readty to be DIY-ed. A big audience. However, there are 'No' people in the theatre world just as in any other form of the arts and their reasons are much the same.
Change is a confrontation and some bods don't like it up 'em, or can't get there heads around it. But we shall persevere and sometimes the cacophany of no's are resounding in my head, giving me a migraine for the nth time, I put on "Never Mind The Bollocks", I watch "Reservoir Dogs" or I chill out to DJ Shadow and realise all is not lost.
If you are a yes person, whatever your chosen field, I suggest you do the same - YES PEOPLE OF THE WORLD UNITE AND TAKEOVER!
The Ferret