Devoted and Disgruntled: An Open Space Making a Scene Conference

I enter the former location of the Vancouver historical interpretation project, Storyeum, now stripped bare of its actors, backdrops, lighting, sound, and costumes. It looks industrial; a large and open space, but somewhat cold-feeling, with its concrete floors and almost bare walls. It is somewhat sad to think of all the time and money and gainful employment for local actors that Storyeum generated, but failed to survive beyond the short-term. In some ways it creates a built-in- sense of irony, or perhaps dark prophesying, for the conference that is to be held here over the next two days, "Devoted and Disgruntled: Making a Scene Conference" hosted by the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance (www.gvpta.ca) on 26-27 November 2010.

Phelim McDermott facilitating the opening of Devoted and Disgruntled with conference attendees.
Photo by Dean Buscher

What makes this Making a Scene conference unique, and what brings me here to observe and participate, is the self-organizing process called Open Space that I will be engaged in with attendees. Facilitated by Phelim McDermott, co-artistic director of London's Improbable Theatre, the application of Open Space makes for an entirely different conference experience. Indicators of this difference greet me as I walk into the conference; chairs are arranged in a large circle and the surrounding walls are covered with white chart paper turned into brightly worded posters bearing the following words:

WHATEVER HAPPENS IS THE ONLY THING THAT COULD HAVEWHENEVER IT STARTS IS THE RIGHT TIMEWHOEVER COMES ARE THE RIGHT PEOPLEWHEN IT'S OVER, IT'S OVER

There are additional posters with images of bees and butterflies, as well as a huge banner that hangs over the entryway into the space that reads:

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT THE THEATRE?

All of these mysterious credos and the guiding question for the conference create a pleasant buzz of curiosity and expectation among the approximately fifty attendees on the morning of the first day. (The conference had over 100 attendees throughout). GVPTA's Executive Director Sue Porter welcomes everyone and then turns the proceedings over to McDermott, a captivating elfin man in purple pants and with literally twinkling eyes and a ready smile. McDermott enters the circle of chairs and begins to tell us about Open Space and how he has adapted this way of conducting meetings and other organizational processes into his own theatre practice in collaboration with the Improbable Theatre ensemble. He has also run a series of Devoted and Disgruntled meetings in London, New York, and other cities around the world, including in Vancouver in 2008 as part of the PuSH Festival. ¹

Open Space (also called Open Space Technology) was developed by Harrison Owen in 1985 and has been implemented in thousands of organizations and community groups worldwide (and has more recently been used in conflict resolution and peace-making settings). ² The Four Principles of conducting an Open Space session are the four statements posted around the conference space. McDermott explains how each principle works in action, in fairly self-explanatory ways, centred on acceptance of everything that occurs, and adds the one Law of Open Space: The Law of Two Feet. This law dictates that you are free to move from session to session with the general understanding that this is absolutely okay with everyone, as Harrison Owen defines it:

[T]he Law of Two Feet ... states simply, if at any time you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing—use your two feet and move to some place more to your liking. Such a place might be another group, or even outside into the sunshine. No matter what, don't sit there feeling miserable. The law, as stated, may sound like rank hedonism, but even hedonism has its place, reminding us that unhappy people are unlikely to be productive people.

Clipboards and markers in the centre of the circle for creating conference sessions.
Photo by Dean Buscher

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