Landscapes of making - autobiography, memory and improvised performance

In an extension of my previous discussions about the nature of the dramaturgical experience when devising from autobiography, this paper maps the dramaturgical processes active in the making of and reception of Train Tracks and Rooftops (2008, 2009, 2010). A contemporary performance piece produced by Lembrança (UK/Brazil) with the support of the ACW, UK and an Australia/Brazil collaboration, the piece emerged from working extensively within a body memory method of devising that is a practice-as-research approach. Through memory fragments of our own childhood places of refuge, Train Tracks and Rooftops set out to explore how the way in which a child claims self (selves) and place outside the familial, creates meaning and builds identity and emplacement. In a consideration of Damasio's notion of non-verbal storying and remembering, I set about identifying and analysing principle 'meaning making' moments during the devising including moments of confusion and conflict. The paper documents the way in which notions of self are contested when working with autobiography and interrogates how memory is revealed in and through the making process and in performance in a way that suggests autobiography, body memory and improvisation are equal in live performance and compellingly exposing of the performer.