What I just found one end of Ella rd

what I learned yesterday

it seems when you leave your computer behind and actually walked out of your front door, you find exactly what it was with you looking on the internet all morning for

21st Century Witt

Returning to London, to make my fortune and design some set. Off to Hampstead tomorrow to discuss both Trailer Trash and The Elephant Man.

Back in Cam

Back in Cambridge, I have a part time job for cash moneys working backstage putting together set. But that done, it is time to get back to designing, Trailer Trash is the name, to appear at the hen & chickens, islington , but until it opens, I am sworn to secrecy.

Rehearsals for The Second Stage of Grief

Rooftops and silver screens

Bedding down after some rooftop cinema, simultaneously wrapped up cosily whilst being blown about by some whipping wind, roaming the streets of ancient london, great stuff

Post show bliss

Finished play the goat last night, everything packed back by midnight, left our director and her long suffering husband wrestling plant pots into the bath to be able to get into the loo. Now, onto the next show, Trailer Trash for a London run of 3 weeks and potential for off broadway, hence the long walk to Stoke Newington for blinds!

the big day

the day of the big show has arrived, I am off to pick up the truck, we have 1 and a half hours to load it and get it to the theatre to unload it and return it so we got it from. the calm before the storm.

36 hours and counting

Knackered, 36 hours and this will all be done and dusted... Set is all ready, lighting cues and stage management to sort out now.

Venue for The Elephant Man

This is where we are going to stage Merrick's journey. This is going to be a lot of fun.

Play the goat bar and a little more

Finished painting the bathroom set, dressing the bar and the breakfast bar, minus party paraphenalia...

Painting the bar

Using entirely skip sourced paints, we are on a very tight budget, I have painted the bar, which fits onto my modular boxes very nicely indeed, dressed pictures to follow.

Modular boxes - Play the Goat

My modular boxes of which I am very proud, which pin hinge together and flat pack down to tour. 1000 x 1000 x 500 built state each

Design Assistant

Sometimes, you get lucky

Today I got very lucky, walking between meets I found a scool throwing away a bunch of paints and art materials, hampstead, near the duke if yer interested.

London

So now I am here, actually here, currently.

I sit in a room, with a view of the Stroud Green Road, I have been working down in London for the past three months, firstly on a show a the new Bush theatre.

A show called the Bush Bizarre, taking up all of the spaces withing this newly rennovated, old library building, site specific theatre, all over the building had audience members sitting amongst cardboard city as Shakespeare was lovingly given in hilarious short-hand, or an improvised opera was belted out from your pizzeria topping choices. Our show was a rendition of a Tenessee Williams american blues, turned into a performance dance piece, set in a new york 50s studio flat. Best review was from the rights holder and good friend of Mr Williams, "he would have loved it, it was very him"... Well shucks.

Another show, Listening, at the Tristan Bates was a very moving account of a girl caught in an anonymous terrorist bombing, a monologue using minimal props but projection, required a whole wall of missing posters. Again, we did well and got 5 star reviews. Another great show, well pleased.

And that brings us up to speed, a show, Play the Goat is about to go onstage at the Walthamstow Olde Rose and Crown, using modular cubes that can double up as a bar or bed, you get the gist.

And the penultimate leg of the intro, or, where is all the design stuff? Huh?

Cambridge, a great and beautiful city, populated by incredible people, layed back locals, surfers trying to punt their way back onto the reef, acedemics striding between street corners and gently swivelling towards the sun and students, beavering away, busily keeping all of their plates spinning.

All on bicycles, all of them.

It is here I have spent the last 4 years, working backstage on gigs and theatre shows, arranging some gigs myself and sometimes designing the lights for shows at the ADC theatre, the proving grounds for some of the UK's most cherished performers.

It does go on

...Nottingham, ah, or arggh, bit of both really, terrible architecture, fantastic people, if you could take one and not the other, it would be how it is.

No theatre to speak of in this chapter of Nottingham, but a lot of fun was had, lots.

And after 7 months of it, off I went, to Brazil, in time for carnival. Landing in Rio, did not expect a heavily bearded uniformed Scot to be telling me where to catch the bus, shows what I know. And 2 months later I had danced, hand-standed (hand-stood?), taught English, surfed, got lost in favelas, read poetry at clandestine poesie-sarau, rode the flying buses with a street art posse and met some lovely, lovely people. I still to this day owe a translation of a play to the Vidigal drama school from where the cast of City of God were drawn, it was no smooth ride, but mark my words, Oque Saudade...

Intro part 2, the yarn continues

... So where was I, yes the crewing and the carpentry and the little bits of set painting, prop repair and all together, character rounding stuff. So rounding in fact that lighting and set design came my way for a number of productions at the arts theatre up in nottingham, well that kept me busy until a jaunt to Paris was offered....

A good friend had family out there and invited me to keep her company on a 9 month adventure that would see me eat some mind boggling dishes, utilise and butcher the french language and even put together set from scratch for performances out there, though money was scarce and one thing and another thing, blighty becconed, and back to the midlands and nottingham did I go...

First Blog - an introduction, or a bunch of excuses...

So, a lot to catch up on, the first 7 years are a bit hazy. Finished Uni, did graphic design whilst stacking paper as a marketing assistant, the product collapsed, so jobless went hunting for work. Not immediately lucky with theatre, the constabulary gave me work destroying confidential waste, very cathartic if not especially spectacular for the mental well being.

I shall go into inspirations in a little while, which may put you somewhere closer to understanding the inner cogs of this blogger's mind, but until then, I shall be bringing you upto speed.

A short while later, work was presented to me in the form of backstage work in the local big theatre on a panto of sleeping beauty, crewing work from then on meant a steady income to enjoy socialising and a bit of creativity. All in all, not too much success, but not too little either. Crewing on shows lasted for 3 whole years and within that was a certain amount of workshop and a sliver of design thrown in...