Ay (Eh?)-up…
I suppose the main point of a blog is to write about the things that you’re doing and encourage people to come, and I’m working on various things that I think you might enjoy at the minute, and endeavouring to be better at keeping you up to date with this thing… so I’ll go backwards. Spit in the face of the Gods and read about the future first.
SPILL
http://www.spillfestival.com
Pat it and Prick it and Mark it with B
The provocation for this piece was a statement made by Selina’s mother that eating, for her, was like a prison. That didn’t seem quite right, so Selina is going to make a dress. She is going to make that dress out of cake. If you like, you’re welcome to come and eat some. Not too much though, or she’ll have nothing to wear.
Selina Thompson is a Sheffield based performance maker with a background in theatre, and she combines this with autobiographical stimuli to make performance and installations that are focused around the prospect of change. Her work focuses on creating something with an audience, a space for dialogue, in which participants contribute to the meaning and creation of the final piece. Her work is hopeful, you are free to come and go as you wish, and she wants you to leave feeling optimistic.
So that’s the official copy and the like. I wish I’d called it and Pat it and Prick it and Mark it with Me. Annoyed. Anyway, in much less articulate ‘Selly-Speak’ – I’m building a dress out of cake, it’s about yo yo dieting – it’s going to be a little bit grose, a little bit beautiful, a little bit sad, a little bit trashy and a lot of silly. And sickly sweet. It’s been an awful lot of fun to plan – like being a feminist Willy Wonka on crack, once I stopped panicking. More on this in another blog.
Spill is brilliant, Live Art Mecca. Get thee to Ipswich. Yorkshire’s repping (hah!) with performances from myself, Adam Young of Indivisible, Victoria Firth, and Forced Entertainment.
What’s that? When you say? 31st October till the 4th November for the Festival as a whole. I perform on the 2nd November, from 11am until 6pm.
Roundhouse Show Slam!
www.roundhouse.org.uk
This is a Scratch night with a difference. Join us for a very special night showcasing the best in new theatre talent, battling it out to win a three-night run in the Roundhouse Studio Theatre.
Over two nights, we’ll bring together eight of the most promising 16-25 year-old emerging performance companies and artists working across theatre, spoken word and cabaret, to perform short pieces of new material. The producers of the best piece in the eyes of our expert panel will get the chance to develop their idea into a full-length piece for performance at the Roundhouse in Spring 2013, plus mentoring from industry producers as they develop their work.
THE PANEL
Nicola Thorold – Roundhouse Executive producer and producer of major theatre events and festivals such as World Stages London.
Scottee –pioneer of the London cabaret scene, creator of Circusfest 2012’s Camp, Roundhouse alumnus and Time Out Performer of 2010.
Polarbear – acclaimed spoken word artist, writer and creator of hit spoken word shows Old Me and Return.
To reserve a ticket for the live show please email [email protected].
I’m going to be performing Chewing the Fat – but with some of the kinks ironed out, it;ll be nice to have a little tidy and a little play, and to perform to a London audience. You should come to this. The panel are wicked, the venue does incredible work, and it’ll be like X factor, except you won’t have to go home and wash in piping hot water cus of the shame of watching terrible TV.
I’d like to take this time to point out that I watch X factor every week, so I’m judging you, avid X factor fan, but no more harshly than I judge myself.
I perform on the 18th November, and there’s another one on the 11th November too. On the day I perform, a brilliant company called Figs in Wigs are also doing their thang, they’re well worth a look.
Here’s what I’m doing now:
1) Drinking Tea
2) Waiting for a phonecall from one of three jobs, so I can generate some money from somewhere
3) Google Search History Says: Fondant Icing Mix, Icing Sugar, Lukka Sigurdardottir, Cake Mix, Cake Dress, Flour, Skoda Car Cake, Heaviest Cake in the World, lb to kg conversions, pink wig, fruit hat, Lambrini, Dolly Varden Cake, Mother Ginger, Candyfloss, Candyfloss hat, Plus Size Leotard, Kanekalon Hair Extensions, Sheffield Theatre – The Way of the World, Marie Antoinette, Amadeus, Rice Paper, Birdcage.
It doesn’t sound like work, but it was. So that’s the present.
Here’s What I Have Been Doing
Attending DIY9 workshops, with varying degrees of success (broken down cars, wrong trains… my usual strands of uselessness). You can read more about those on the Live Art Development Agency’s Website. They’re brilliant, brilliant opportunities, inspiring and invigorating.
Applying for things. So maybe I’ll have exciting things to tell you at some point. Maybe I won’t. We all have to wait and see.
Going to Devoted and Disgruntled – my second time in attendance, and as always, a big, juicy plate of Food for Thought. This one was good: http://www.devotedanddisgruntled.com/events/dd-roadshow-leeds/reports/does-theatre-have-a-duty-to-engage-with-religious/ (I’m Selma, btw. Alas)
Popping over to Theatre in the Mill in Bradford, mostly drinking too much, but sobering up regularly enough to notice that Invisible Flock are making a beautiful installation in there, called… ‘Someone Come Find Me’. Go and be in it. It’s lovely. They also did a Murder Mystery, which was an absolute RIOT.
Going to Light Night in Leeds, being tired and grumpy, but still enjoying the site of lots of people wandering around, and in a very small, very subtle way, taking ownership of their city.
Spending time at East Street Arts, because it’s quiet and nice, and working atop or beneath a loft bed is a pain.
Also, very excitingly, working with a lovely team to build a beautiful website. Like the new design? Show both it and my designer, Rafaela Taylor, some lovin’, she’s worked really hard. As has tech man Joe Bunce. Lovely.
I’m off to Job number three, (of four… human coffee machine, beer dispenser, artist and…) selling Nice Soap to Nice people in Lush.
Thanks for reading, I’ll try and do you a more gentle, whimsy, arty one soon
xxxxxx