Since I was here last.....

Post date: 08-May-2014 16:10:39

I have been very remiss updating these pages! So, here's an attempt to fill the gap:

August-September 2013: Inaugural Present Moment Theatre Lab - a professionally produced "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with young actors (14-18 year olds) from outer East London boroughs, which toured to their respective secondary schools enabling over 1000 young people to experience Shakespeare in their own schools. The young actors committed to a 4 week intensive rehearsal period during the summer holidays. The process culminated in a gala performance at RADA's Vanburgh Theatre. Subsequently we have been working with English department staff within those schools to encourage the integration of "rehearsal room" techniques into the English teaching classroom - getting the plays off the page and giving young people the opportunity to engage with Shakespeare & make the plays more accessible. This has been made possible with funding through the London Schools Excellence Fund.

We are hoping to offer another Theatre Lab during the summer of 2014. http://present-moment.co.uk/theatre-lab/

September-November 2013: East 15 Acting School, BA in World Performance, 3rd year Applied & Political Theatre module - devised performance: "BLUE FIELDS", as part of the REVOLUTION season.

I was proud to have been asked to return to work on this module again - a very different experience this year, but the students created a challenging piece of theatre including multi-media with stylised staging & design.

Exploring oppression, taking the anti-gay legislation in Russia as their starting point, with a media based thread running throughout, the students developed a narrative which used heavy satire & a specially created propaganda animated cartoon. As any piece of political theatre, it elicited strong responses from the audiences which filled the East 15 Clifftown Studios in Southend for 4 performances.

December 2013: "Shattered Songs" : a week of research & development in York with writer Helen Cadbury, & 4 versatile actors - including Richard Ashton, Thomas Frere & Lisa Howard, working on how to capture the essence of Florence Farmborough's diary of "A Nurse at the Russian Front", which events to focus on to do this epic account justice.

There will be further developments as the piece takes shape.

January - March 2014: "The Theatre of Illusion" - Pierre Corneille's "L'Illusion Comique" (1639) at East 15 Acting School as part of the Certificate of Higher Education in Theatre Arts, focussing on classic text.

Intensive work on connecting with the text both emotionally & vocally, exploring Richard Wilbur's translation which maintained the heightened language and rhyming couplets, enabled the students to skilfully handle the dialogue, creating the world in which illusions were real - even down to creating the inside of the magicians cave using cardboard boxes and bin-liners, playing with shadows cast using torches and strategically placed angle-poise lamps.

So, there we have it - I'm currently delivering song-writing sessions with 6 and 7 year olds in a primary school in Haringey, north London; and in May-July will be working again with the Hammersmith & Fulham Urban Studies Centre on a Heritage Lottery funded project exploring the archives and stories from World War 1 about local Victoria Cross awardee, Edward Dwyer, and the Blakes munitions factory workers.

Interesting & challenging work, for which I am truly grateful!