Minis
Well done to all the Miniaturists which I went to see on the weekend. Check out the site here.
I had a conversation with a director which went along the lines of:
-Have you been here before?
-No. But it’s good, isn’t?
-Yes. It is. Everything is. Makes me nervous about my own one. The standard is very high.
-You’d have thought there may have been one or two high risk experimental pieces which wouldn’t work. Or simply something which didn’t hold together. But they all did. Good luck for yours.
-Erm. Thanks.
I’m off with a bit of a family crisis but hopefully back in a week.
David Edgar
Interviews with him on the radio here and play back here of PLAYING WITH FIRE and SOMETHING WRONG ABOUT THE MOUTH but only for one week, more to come – so if you are reading this in the archives it will link to other plays!
He has written (from British Council):
“With millions of others, I saw in the world-wide youth revolt of 1968 the prospect of a world without poverty, exploitation and war, and the possibility of my generation bringing that utopia about. In a considerably but not entirely revised form, that belief has informed everything I have written for the theatre since. The politics of the late 1960s involved much conjuration; it will take another and even stronger kind of sorcery to reverse the backlash against its ideals. But for me, making magic real is what it’s always been about.”
Actors: movie star
For those actors out there…
Check out
http://www.bethemoviestar.com/
2 leads stars for a movie thing – I know the people behind it and they
are sound — it has a bit of a reality tv edge but I don’t think it
will be like that at all…then check out the website.
For the rest of us, some of the audition clips I saw on thew news were funny!
Plug over.
Generosity
Ok. So I’ve had my head stuck in the sand of the off-line world and seem to have missed a whole shed load of happenings in the online world and more.
This is a mixture of having a full time job, a writing deadline for my radio 4 play; working on two short plays and various ideas, trying to read more, my new flat mate (but only indirectly as it has led me, I claim, to watching more anime – although this is almost certainly just an excuse by me), girlfriend deciding to leave law to pursue more creative ambitions and life in general.
So, this blog is a bit more erratic of late and likely to remain so.
Still, I wanted to make noises of support for David and his blog and also to Fin and his blog, who has staged a recent battleground.
I think David has picked up a point that Alison made about being generous.
My girlfriend keeps a knitting blog and very occasionally “non-knitting” content in the knitting blog world does erupt into flames. But its is VERY rare. Mostly they are extremely generous and helpful bunch of people and their community is richer for it. They encounter problems, they ask for help, people respond with encouragement and advice; ideas are exchanged and their world grows. FOs are cherished. WIPs are encouraged. Stashes are applauded and envied. Yes, non-knitters if you’re interested go find out what a WIP is… (try flickr WIP knitting…)
In fact one of our adventures in 2006 was going to Estonia, where we met up with another knitting blogger and had a wonderful afternoon seeing Talinn through the eyes of yarn and craft shops.
The point of being generous in the theatre world or any world, is that I think on balance, generosity leads to a richer, better world for all. If we could extend this notion to, for instance, world politics. I think we would all be happier – so perhaps if it started out in the world of blogs and continued – perhaps just perhaps, slowly by slowly, we would make the world a better place. It’s not a dead ideal.
Keep going David. Keep going y’all. Your absence makes the world a poorer place.
Other theatre
Lyn Gardner writes here about the theatre that critics miss:
“…two theatre cultures operate in this country: one is protected and supported by critical endorsement and the other is largely ignored. One culture takes place entirely in theatres; the other takes place where it can find a foothold – on the streets, in found spaces, etc. One is largely text-based; the other embraces the visual and the physical. One is almost entirely London-centric (with Stratford-upon-Avon treated as a suburb of the capital) and the other not only embraces the regional but also has a much more European and international dimension”
Happy New Year!
I’ve been ultra busy through December and have a new flat mate moving in too.
Many unfinished-to-be-finished matters for the beginning of 2007.
I have to fill in Chris Goode on the whole of the Philip Ridley workshop and try and match the brilliant thinking on his blog. I have my notes, but collating them together is taking time. One thought I have been mulling over is Ridley’s suggestion that interesting work happens in visual arts first before filtering down to the theatre arts.
I also have to finish my piece on writing for radio for Andrew on his very informative blog.
Then work on final draft for The Places in Between my Radio 4 dramatisation of Rory Stewart’s walk across Afghanistan just after the fall of the Taliban; and two short plays (one for the 7 Sins project and one mini) as well as hopefully gearing up for Nakamitsu at the Gate this year and trying to get from “ideas” to actual plays…
Hopefully some will come through.
Wishing everyone wonderful things for 2007.
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About me
I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.
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Recent Work
Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).
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Nakamitsu
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Yellow Gentlemen
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