Kate Alderton on stage at Super Connected at Brighton Fringe 2024
“Some musings on directing a gig, a stage show and a film all at the same time” – by theatre maker Kate Alderton
As far as I know, art comes from really good questions. It’s in our reaching for the answers the art emerges.
Long before I met Tim, he’d been creatively responding to these questions:
1. How can I address my own social media addiction and disconnection it creates? Make a concept album and write from the perspectives of different characters grappling with the same thing.
2. How can I get people to listen to an album in its entirety like we used to, instead of out of context and through the streaming platforms? Make a silent movie to accompany the songs, a ‘screen album’ you can watch.
3. How can I screen the film so people can watch it in real time and embodied space rather than watching it in isolation on the very technology the album is railing against? Screen it live in music venues and theatres.
And finally…
4. How can you watch a live gig, a film and a stage show at the same time?
This was the creative conundrum we faced when Tim first asked me to direct Super Connected Live.
Tim Arnold and Sarah Kershaw on stage with the Super OCnnected film, Brighton IronWorks Studios, May 2024
When we started it felt impossible. My favourite place! Working and weaving three art-forms and two performers who all need our attention at the same time was a fascinating process. Focus on one for too long and you miss the story, the performance or both.
We played with where our attention should be at any given moment? What pulls us in? What distracts us? Is there room for stillness? Who or what has our attention? What is this thing, our need to be watched, witnessed, to hide and be seen?
The creative process became a complete mirror of our relationships with social media and technology, the same challenges about big tech Tim is asking in his album ‘Super Connected’. What it gives, what it takes away, how it’s affecting us.
What we’re hoping is that we’ve made a show that leaves you with some really good questions. Really hope you can make it to one of the shows, I’m incredibly proud of the work we made and curious what questions it might bring up in you! We’re having a ‘Screenless Social’ after each show to find out what they might be!
The Super Connected LIVE tour starts on 9th May at Quay Arts on the Isle of Wight, taking in further dates in Liverpool, Brighton, Bath & Reading before ending at The Cockpit Theatre London on 4th June. Book here.
