Thursday 25 March 2010

how to sprout a pea.

I'm touring the latest incarnation of our family show PEA with my theatre company again - our website's over here if you want to check it out.

I'm getting fonder and fonder of this show. I had an idea about a show aaaaaages ago, a shaky line-drawing of a thought based on a book and a song, and the show that we made didn't quite fit that original idea, which definitely made me struggle a bit. That's just the reality of collaborating with other people though, and I definitely value that more than dreaming up ideas by myself - without the rest of the company this little pea shoot would never have seen the light of day. Weighing me down as well, however, was the fact that I somehow didn't feel "qualified" or even particularly good at making family theatre (I like that term better than children's theatre - I want to make shows that adults are happy to watch too).

PEA is turning more into the show that I originally hoped we'd make. It's loosely framed around the fairy story of The Princess and the Pea, but really it's about two sisters who at first only have each other; it's about the importance of the family you're born with, sure, but also the equally important family that you find on your journey through the world.

And I'm growing in confidence about making theatre for young people. We've been highly fortunate to be taken under the wing of the Night Out/Noson Allan scheme run by the Arts Council Wales, which encourages communities to book theatre shows by taking away the financial risk involved. This has given us the chance to take our original rough draft of a show and build upon it. More importantly, it means we've been performing in areas where theatre is not a regular part of day-to-day community life. In fact, we might be some of these children's first experience of theatre. Ever. There's a thought to make me pause.

So we have experiences like last night, when we performed in a school in which the event was also organised by a group of "young promoters": students guided through the mechanics of promoting and producing a night out at the theatre. They had enthusiasm in spadefuls. It was overwhelming. We were struggling to load into the school hall, set up, rehearse some bits that appear to change with every new space we encounter AND run a cue-to-cue. These things seemed very important to us. But actually our little show was a tiny piece of a much bigger event, which was an experience that was giving these young people a sense of personal agency, control and ownership. For that, I'll happily endure again what was perhaps the most chaotic pre-show I've ever experienced. It was more rock concert than evening at the theatre, with audience energy at peak levels and appreciation - when we earned it - granted at high volume. And that, I think, is the way it should be.

And look: these kids knew their stuff, there were even backstage security passes AND a post-show photo call. We've arrived.

Wednesday 17 March 2010

speech after long silence

I'm still alive.

I'm spending a lot of time in quite a dark place.

I need to find a job. I really don't want to, because I'm afraid that another McJob will make me go crazy. But I need money. So I have no choice really, but I'm still dragging my feet. These are some of the dark things I don't really want to write about, for fear they'll turn this blog into just a bit of a moan.

The Clown mentioned that a friend of his has just joined the first roller derby group to start here in Cardiff. He suggested I join, pointing out that I was the one to express my interest in it to him a while back. This is true.

"Go into the joke shop in the arcade", he said, "and ask the large woman behind the counter for information. She can help you".

With such a direction presented to me, what else can I do?

For anyone who isn't familiar with roller derby, here's the trailer for a film that will - I hope - soon be released here in the UK.

Just say yes, right?

Sunday 14 March 2010

work is much better with a cat beside you

yes, I've been absent for AGES: combination of illness and just Not Getting Around To It.

I will make amends for this later.