composers-in-residence within theatre companies usually are employed as a full time staff member to create music during rehearsals, devising sessions and orchestrate live music for productions of theatrical work. my role within stan’s cafe is to actively not do these things, instead make work independently responding to the things stan’s cafe are doing, their eating habits, their location, their relationship with the public, donors and the space they occupy.
this role sees me trying to affect the everyday running of the organisation/ getting something to happen within the organisation that isn’t just composing incidental music. working independently on my own response/work, while also researching and fulfilling other possible roles a composer could fill within the organisation, such as musical dramaturg, audio engineer, coffee runner, caterer, receptionist or producer.
however, there were some issues with my role as a composer-in residence between september 2021 and may 2022
due to the pandemic, i was required by bcu to have completed a risk assessment before going to stan's cafe. i was also expected to complete an erm (ethics review), in which i have to detail all of the ethical issues and risks and how i planned to deal with them in my project. i also needed to submit a phd plan to bcu, detailing everything i planmed to do over the next six months with stan's cafe, for further ethical consideration. these forms, although tedious, i was able to fill out, however, certain questions required me to have some sort of experience of how stan's cafe are currently running, who is there on a regular basis, what work they are making and what they are planning.
without answering these questions, i was not able to find the answer to these questions, which presents itself as a conundrum.
on top of this, stan's cafe had recently left their office space. they had plans to move into a new space, and have done so without a contract legally allowing them to be there by the birmingham city council. this means that for me to undertake any research within stan's cafe would not be ethically sound, as it is not ethically sound for stan's cafe to be there, nor can they sign off on my risk assessments.
as an aggravating result, within the start of my studies, i have not been able to spend any time as a composer- in-residence with stan's cafe, or research anything about the company by existing in their space.
i have been reading about stan's cafe through their book devising theatre with stan's cafe on their history as a company and how they devise and make theatre. i have also conducted some projects about this situation.
this has affected the research dramatically for this starting period, as it shifted my angle as a composer-in-residence to being outside of the place i needed to be in residence in. this has made it hard to make work of value to stan's cafe. however this unqiue situation has allowed me to view stan's cafe as a subject of composition rather than the subject of collaboration.
the following body of work was made under these restrictions.
