Caught in a Writing Typhoon....

Sorry for my negligence of late, it's been a frantic, crazy, hectic, and unbelievably exciting time for me. Just a quick recap.....

I'm now officially registered to perform in the Vibraphonic Poetry Slam on 7th March at the Exeter Phoenix. I'm absolutely terrified, but I've got an ever mounting spectrum of word wizardry creeping into the folds of my notebook. I'm not a poetry performer and aside from the youtube videos I've been watching of other slams, I am walking into this completely blind. I'm hoping my performing experience and my love of poetry will help me, but if my words aren't sharp, arousing and thump with a vibrant beat - I'm dead in the water! My tactic is to write the different pieces in a style of chapters from the book of my life. I promise it will be more interesting than it sounds!

I've also been working on some new comedy sketches. I won't be adding them to the Barefaced Cheek repetoir just yet, but hopefully I can find enough gems to submit to the 7on7 sketch competition currently running on the BBC writersroom website. The prize is use of your sketches on a new BBC Radio 7 show and also a writing masterclass with David Mitchell of Mitchell and Webb (Peep Show) fame. If I won, I would have to try terribly hard NOT to wet myself or else I might be the subject of one of HIS sketches. I'm sure the competition will be tight and I know of a few other South West comedy writers entering this competition so we shall see what happens!

Other news - I'll post individual updates for Temple of Nothing (first performance of Transparent Masks in April) and Barefaced Cheek tour of This Show Shall Remain Nameless... soon.

New project - I'm currently writing a one act play examining a mother/daughter relationship and written in my usual tongue-in-cheek fashion. The working title is Peach Fuzz and this play is very special as I'm developing it on the basis that it will be performed by myself and my daughter (the inspiration for my own foray into acting) upon our return to Halifax, Canada. I'm hoping to schedule it into the Atlantic Fringe Festival this coming summer and other venues in Nova Scotia.

Honing the Craft at Animated Exeter Festival

It's Animated Exeter time once again! This is probably my favourite time of year in Exeter and I'm certain there are few other animation festivals quite as comprehensive and accessible as this one. Animation is one of my great loves. I started off with the Disney classics of my youth and a mild obsession with Tom and Jerry. Although I still love the soft, hand-drawn cartoon fairy tales, my tastes have changed drastically over the years. I spend a good portion of my time on youtube watching animated shorts - from the more widely known and studied to the lesser known student creations. I'm a huge fan of the dark brooding creations of Tim Burton and the slightly more frightening Brothers Quay. I've also been lucky enough to discover on youtube the immense talent of M dot Strange. His feature length feast - We Are the Strange had me mesmerized from beginning to end. As far as I know he's a one-man-show and a bit of an animation savant (his doll models are just plain freaky). He travels all over the world speaking at conventions and is well known in the animation underground. I hope to meet him one of these days.

The photo above is one of my creations from a family animation I made with my daughter, Mother and two cousins last year called The Everlasting Rose. We made the film with equipment/studio loans from Exeter Phoenix after participating in a Fabric Animation workshop at Animated Exeter and believing we could do it on our own!!! Since making that film, I've spent countless hours trying to hone my meager stop motion skills by reading as many books on the subject as I can get my hands and eyes on; participating in the wonderful workshops of the Animated Exeter Festivals; and watching, watching and watching animation after animation. It really is an obsession, but as far as obsessions go, it's one I'm not willing to give up!

This year, I signed up for two courses, both of which were last weekend. The first was a Writing for Animation masterclass with Alan Gilby (award winning writer of Frankenstein's Cat and Pinky and Perky). It was worth every penny - and then some! It was an incredibly intense session packed full of Alan's wisdom, advice and the in's and out's of the business. Alan has a comedy theatre background and starts off his sessions with the most revered of all drama games. While most of the other writers were sweating in their pants, I felt very much at home! It was hard work the whole way through and I could feel my mind buzzing with the flurry of mental workouts he pushed us through. It was superb, absolutely superb! My only regret is that I didn't stay to have a drink and a chat with Alan afterwards, but alas I didn't allow for it in my daily schedule and was left running for the parking lot at the end of the session- crap! He had a small crowd gathering around him at the bar - smarter folks who obviously sensed their luck at having an opportunity to share a drink and pick the brain of one of the industry's creative geniuses. Oh well, maybe next time? Probably not.

The next course was the following day - Life Drawing for Animation with Sara Easby. Again, this was a workout but of a different kind. I thought my arms were going to drop off at the end of the session. Sara teaches life drawing at Aardman - the mecca of the stop motion animation world, so I jumped at the chance to take part and quickly emptied my wallet of my remaining £10.00 - at that price, it was a steal! It was a life drawing class in every sense - easels, charcoal, and a dancing model. I love to draw, but I found the rigid use of the techniques a bit daunting for my wobbly arm and rapid eye movements. I'm so used to drawing on a flat surface, I fear I've created a lot of very bad habits. It was a terrific experience though and I took alot of useful information away with me. I can't say I enjoyed it as much as Alan's workshop, but that would be like comparing apples and oranges. I was inspired enough after Alan's class to write out film ideas for two hours that evening, but I didn't go home and draw after the second one. My arm hurt too much! Still, not sure I'd ever have the chance anywhere else other than England to participate in classes like these, with people working in such esteemed institutions. Boy, do I hate to miss an opportunity!

Cheltenham, here we come!

On Saturday, we travelled to Cheltenham to deliver our show flyers and check out the digs! I'd never been to Cheltenham before and thought it was a lovely place, lots of activity, many many people on the streets and the energy was really uplifting. Our first stop was The Everyman Theatre to drop off the box of flyers/posters and then we spent the afternoon doing the tourist thing - walking around, leaving flyers at all of the hotspots (tourist bureau, library, museum, other theatres, cafes and pubs). The reception we got was terrific - people seemed keen to chat and find out what we were doing and when. Comedy is always a good topic of conversation, especially in the depressing times of late, so we spent lots of time just chatting to the people, cracking a few jokes and drinking lots of coffee! Later on we went back to the Everyman to meet Corin the tech dude and see the Studio Theatre space (just right for us - intimate quarters!). All of the theatre staff we met were very friendly, happy people. We discovered that we've already sold tickets to all three shows which is terrific news as it's still 5 weeks before the first show. We'd really love to sell out and reach as many people as we can. This will be our first proper set of shows outside of Devon and it's important that we keep networking and bring our show to a wider UK audience. So if you live near Cheltenham and need a good laugh, come and see us next month (12, 13, 14 March) at The Everyman Theatre. (http://www.everymantheatre.org.uk/).

FYI - We're performing two great little sketches this Saturday (Valentine's Day) at Rougement Castle in Exeter as part of the Art Week Finale. The sketches are Not a Date and Subbucks (a local favourite!). If you're in Exeter on the weekend and want a free preview, come along - both of these sketches feature in our new show, This Show Shall Remain Nameless...

http://www.barefacedcheek.bravehost.com/

To slam or not to slam....

I've been invited to participate in the Vibraphonic Poetry Slam taking place on 7th March at the Exeter Phoenix. I was very quick to decline at first, after all I am a slam virgin. I've been writing poetry for a long time, but I've only performed at two public readings, and neither of those were 'slams'. And my poetry is very prose heavy, lovey-dovey, heavily iced - it lacks the strong edged language indicative of this kind of performance. I jumped at the chance to spectate - but perform? I don't think so!

Now, for the last week I've been mulling over my decision, and the slam keeps coming back to haunt me. I've been meeting and speaking with other artists performing in the slam and strange, rapid-fire word combinations have been appearing in my mind at a thrilling pace. I love challenging myself, as a writer and a performer. Perhaps I was too quick to say no. Perhaps I should reconsider. Perhaps I have the 'slam' in me after all.

I haven't changed my mind exactly, but thought that I would do some 'slam' research to help me make the most educated decision. I've been watching numerous youtube videos of slam participants and have concluded that at it's best, it's actually a lot like rap - isn't it? Now that's not a bad thing, although I'm not a traditional rap fan. What I do love about rap though is its unconventionl word wizardry and beat-like trance inducing pace. Slamming is actually pretty complicated stuff and extremely skilled when it's done well. I'm thinking I might give it a go, in a supportive environment (such as the Vibraphonic Poetry Slam), it could be a very liberating experience. Actually, the slam is being held the day before International Women's Day so it would be a wonderful opportunity to create something very personal and meaningful for myself and other women.

I haven't changed my mind yet, but I am wavering....

A temple, a tsunami and a pen.....

Well today I'm home with my sick daughter so thought I'd take the opportunity to work on some writing I've set aside for a while. Mensa and the Devil Tree is shaping up nicely as a story. I've tried to write it so the words sing when they're spoken. I want the sound of the words to have as much impact as the meaning. I've not performed anything like this before - in fact I've never performed alone on stage before, so there are numerous challenges, but I'm very excited. I'm sure I will get useful feedback from the other Temple members to help me sculpt Mensa to the best of my abilities.

I've set myself a goal to try and finish one of my novels for young adults this month (!). One regret is that I haven't spent as much time on these, and particularly that I hadn't finished one complete draft before moving on to the development of another. I have in my bedroom boxes upon boxes of handwritten notes and unfinished manuscripts. The novel I'm working on right now is one I started writing in August 2007 while vacationing in Ibiza with my family. This story is very special as the four main characters are modelled after my daughter, two neices and nephew. In fact, during one very hot day in our rented apartment, all four kids helped me write the first chapter of the story. When we returned to England, I set my notes aside and didn't look at them again until the following year when we made plans to return to Ibiza. So, in August 2008 I took the beginning of the manuscript with me and wrote for days - poolside, on the balcony, anytime I had five minutes to spare and needed some relief from the sun. With a good chunk of the story written and the entire bones of it fleshed out, I'm going to work very hard this month to finish the draft (in a lovely purple hardbound notebook), type it up, edit and submit to publishers. Fingers crossed - this may be my first published novel.

It's a great story, but still without a title! It centres around four children who are living on a small island near Sri Lanka with their Missionary parents. When a tsunami hits the island, the children are evacuated along with the other villagers. Separated from their parents during the chaos, their boat washes up on a strange little island which at first appears to be uninhabited. What the children discover about their new island home and themselves will change their lives forever.

I'll keep you posted on my progress....

Mensa and the Devil Tree

OK - thought I'd give you a little preview of my new work for Temple of Nothing. This is one of my sketches, not to be used in the piece, but designed to inspire the writing.

I'll be narrating the story of Mensa, a vibrant girl with a penchant for exploring the depths of her curious nature. There's a silent filmed background element and the story is rich in religious references, sexuality, desire, female stereotypes, the mother/daughter relationship, temptation, historical bias, love and loss. The colour red features prominently.

The idea for this story came from my long held adoration for children’s stories and fairy tales. I was particularly drawn to the idea of creating a seemingly innocent little story with a serrated edge. I've drawn further inspiration from some of my favourite storytellers, including God (the Bible), Shakespeare, Leonard Cohen and Daphne duMaurier, among others. I think they would be pleased.

Here's a short excerpt from the draft:

The tree spoke softly. “Can you hear my prayer Mensa?”

And she could, the vision which she beheld was one face, one voice and it spoke these words:

“In nature, there is no blemish but the mind............."

And a bit more:

The tree looked down at Mensa through its crusted gaping holes of eyes. “You are the puppet flower on a puppet stem, and I am your howling animal.”

They laughed at this. And the tree stroked Mensa’s hair with the gentleness of a true friend.

I'll update you on my progress as the weeks go by. I will be performing the finished piece solo during the first performance with the Temple of Nothing...sometime in May....

Worshiping in the Temple...

My newest performance project is the Temple of Nothing (birthed and facilitated by the brilliant and inspiring Belinda Harris-Reid & Josephine Larsen). I have finished creating the Facebook group page and uploaded as many interesting 'white' themed photos I could find. White plays an important role in the development and portrayal of the various created performance pieces...I don't want to give too much away! There are thirteen women involved with this project, from poets to playwrights, artists to alchemists, all of various ages and backgrounds - a truly diverse group with one commonality - the desire to make the inaccessible accessible. We are all attempting to create performances which stretch us and our abilities, as well as the perceptions of our audiences and the world around us. It is a truly exciting and inspiring project and I'm thrilled to be a part of it. My one great sadness is that I will only be able to participate in the first performance (sometime in May - Exeter) as I am moving back to Canada in June. There are big plans to tour this show and for it to evolve in it's development through it's lifecycle. I'll be sorry to leave it behind. Perhaps a long distance relationship with the Temple could be created? I certainly hope so.

http://www.templeofnothing.com/

Perform, perform, breathe and perform.....

My theatre company Barefaced Cheek is currently in the full throws of marketing and promotion hysteria. With our new show (This Show Shall Remain Nameless...) gearing up for its debut in Cheltenham, (12-14 March at the Everyman Theatre) we have plans to visit the city this weekend. First stop is a familiarisation with the local folk and watering holes, artistic venues and gathering spaces so that we can effectively distribute our flyers. I'm sure the day will also involve some much needed refreshments, laughter and possibly an impromtu performance, a little teaser if you will... Then we will go to the Everyman to meet with the technical dudes and see the performance space for the first time.

In an unfortunate turn of events, we've just discovered that our Friday show is competing with Red Nose Day. I'm trying to convince my partners (Sean Devlin and Derek Keeping) that there's actually an opportunity here - why can't we just wear red noses and make a collection (could help with our travel/accomodation costs!). Not ok? Oh well, I tried. But seriously, I think we can use the Red Nose thingy to help give our show a boost on the night - ours HAS TO be the best comedy happening, right? My delusion should be interpreted as enthusiasm. Now, back to spreading the word..... (www.barefacedcheek.bravehost.com)