I am over the moon, the stars, the milky way and I might just run away with a spoon...
Saturday 9 July 2011
Off Cut Festival
Found out some incredible news this week - my short play 'Skyclad' has been selected to appear in this year's Off Cut Festival at the Riverside studios!
I am over the moon, the stars, the milky way and I might just run away with a spoon...
The Off Cut Festival is fantastic. Check out their facebook page and their website.
I am over the moon, the stars, the milky way and I might just run away with a spoon...
Wednesday 29 June 2011
An A-mazing Opportunity.
Hello again!
A few months ago I was asked by my wonderful friend Bob Eastham, who is the director of the community theatre company 'Shake-A-Leg' (Their website) if I could write a play for the Saffron Walden Maze Festival. The artistic director of Sheer Drop, Tom Latter had worked with me on 'Printed Linen' and he was keen to direct 'Lost & Found' and for his theatre company (Sheer Drop) to produce it in association with Shake-A-Leg, so the production was born!
Visit the Saffron Walden Maze Festival Website or visit them on Facebook and give 'em a LIKE - everybody loves a maze, don't they? - Facebook Page.
The festival is the first one of it's kind in the town and it is a great chance to celebrate the fact that the town has three incredible mazes:
1.) The Ancient Turf Labyrinth on The Common -
2.) Victorian Hedge Maze in Bridge End Gardens - I couldn't find a picture of the maze but here's a picture of the gardens in which it is (it should give you some idea of the Victorian formal style) -
3.) 'Sun Maze', a bronze sculpture by artist Michael Ayrton (which is part of the Fry Art Gallery's collection - the Fry is a lovely little gallery in Saffron Walden - Fry Art Gallery's Website - take a peek...) -
Once I knew I was doing a play for the Maze Festival, I started researching mazes...
For me the most fascinating maze in the town is the Ancient Turf Maze, as I love the fact that it is probably of Pagan origins and it has so much mystery surrounding it. The real meaning and use of the maze is still uncertain, there are theories, very good theories, but nothing is set in stone.
Almost as soon as Bob asked me to write the play I knew I wanted to perform it on/in one of the two mazes, and as you know from above my personal favourite is the turf maze, so that is where I have set the play. I love a bit of site-specific work.
Now there is something that you should know about me...I love research! It was at drama school that I first learnt just how much I love researching. As an actress I absolutely thrive on character and background research, so it is only natural that I should relish the activity just as much as a writer. A subject which I have very much looked forward to looking into, and now since I've started researching it, am loving is...Paganism.
My research into Paganism has been not only been interesting but it has driven me not only into Treadwells Occult bookshop (a trip I was very excited about and I wasn't disappointed by. It's a gorgeous bookshop, look-
(Do you spot the traffic warden slightly blurred in the middle - no one likes a traffic warden (do they??!?), but I do like the bookshop behind.) but it also drove me to write a short play called 'Skyclad' which is about a Wiccan Druid who is trying to communicate with her dead twin by using Wiccan Magic. I have to say that I fell so much in love with that character (Phillipa) that she is making another appearance in 'Lost & Found'.
I don't know how often other writers do that, creating a character in one play and then wanting to explore them so much that they have to write them into another? It would be interesting to know how often that happens. If anyone knows, let me know.
Well I better go now. I need to finalise my short play entry to Bushgreen's What's In My Box - deadline Friday!
Bye bye...
A few months ago I was asked by my wonderful friend Bob Eastham, who is the director of the community theatre company 'Shake-A-Leg' (Their website) if I could write a play for the Saffron Walden Maze Festival. The artistic director of Sheer Drop, Tom Latter had worked with me on 'Printed Linen' and he was keen to direct 'Lost & Found' and for his theatre company (Sheer Drop) to produce it in association with Shake-A-Leg, so the production was born!
Visit the Saffron Walden Maze Festival Website or visit them on Facebook and give 'em a LIKE - everybody loves a maze, don't they? - Facebook Page.
The festival is the first one of it's kind in the town and it is a great chance to celebrate the fact that the town has three incredible mazes:
1.) The Ancient Turf Labyrinth on The Common -
2.) Victorian Hedge Maze in Bridge End Gardens - I couldn't find a picture of the maze but here's a picture of the gardens in which it is (it should give you some idea of the Victorian formal style) -
3.) 'Sun Maze', a bronze sculpture by artist Michael Ayrton (which is part of the Fry Art Gallery's collection - the Fry is a lovely little gallery in Saffron Walden - Fry Art Gallery's Website - take a peek...) -
Once I knew I was doing a play for the Maze Festival, I started researching mazes...
For me the most fascinating maze in the town is the Ancient Turf Maze, as I love the fact that it is probably of Pagan origins and it has so much mystery surrounding it. The real meaning and use of the maze is still uncertain, there are theories, very good theories, but nothing is set in stone.
Almost as soon as Bob asked me to write the play I knew I wanted to perform it on/in one of the two mazes, and as you know from above my personal favourite is the turf maze, so that is where I have set the play. I love a bit of site-specific work.
Now there is something that you should know about me...I love research! It was at drama school that I first learnt just how much I love researching. As an actress I absolutely thrive on character and background research, so it is only natural that I should relish the activity just as much as a writer. A subject which I have very much looked forward to looking into, and now since I've started researching it, am loving is...Paganism.
My research into Paganism has been not only been interesting but it has driven me not only into Treadwells Occult bookshop (a trip I was very excited about and I wasn't disappointed by. It's a gorgeous bookshop, look-
(Do you spot the traffic warden slightly blurred in the middle - no one likes a traffic warden (do they??!?), but I do like the bookshop behind.) but it also drove me to write a short play called 'Skyclad' which is about a Wiccan Druid who is trying to communicate with her dead twin by using Wiccan Magic. I have to say that I fell so much in love with that character (Phillipa) that she is making another appearance in 'Lost & Found'.
I don't know how often other writers do that, creating a character in one play and then wanting to explore them so much that they have to write them into another? It would be interesting to know how often that happens. If anyone knows, let me know.
Well I better go now. I need to finalise my short play entry to Bushgreen's What's In My Box - deadline Friday!
Bye bye...
Monday 27 June 2011
Getting Started
Hi. My name is Alex. Welcome to my blog (which looks a little bit like a field).
What will my blog be about?
I'm a new playwright, I'm just getting started and I've definitely got a lot to learn. So my blog will be about that journey (cue cheesy moment at the end of a celebrity trip up a mountain).
Now this blog doesn't come in at the very beginning of that 'journey'. I've already been extremely lucky and had my first full length play produced. It all happened a little suddenly and a little by accident, if I'm being honest.
I was asked by two fellow drama school graduates (yes I'm a trained actress darling, though under a different name) if I would write a play for them to put on at The Courtyard, Shoreditch. I had written a few very short (5 minutes) plays at drama school which they had liked, so they trusted me to write a full length two hander!!
At first I didn't think I could do it, 5 minutes is very different to 80 and I thought I lacked the ability to go beyond a couple of pages. I did manage it and I really surprised myself - this is something I want to do more of, lots and lots more of!
The brief I was given was wonderfully loose, only two characters (1M, 1F) and it had to be modern day and relevant.
What are subjects we hear a lot about? Bankers and student debt/unemployment I thought, so I went with that. A banker and a struggling student together in a hotel room equals 'Printed Linen' - my first full length play!
I learnt an awful lot from the experience and I am incredibly grateful to Glass to Wall Productions for staging my first play. They made a lovely poster, here it is:
As the run was only 6 nights, we failed to get a reviewer in, but I did get some great feedback from audience members, so that has given me the confidence to keep writing, and now I've started I can't seem to stop! I love it.
So onwards and upwards (up the mountain). I am currently writing the play 'Lost & Found' which has been commissioned by the Saffron Walden Maze Festival and it will be performed on the town's ancient turf maze! It is being produced by Sheer Drop Theatre who are a fantastic new writing company who have been very supportive to me (their artistic director Tom Latter did the dramaturgy for 'Printed Linen').
Check out Sheer Drop's Facebook Page and give 'em a LIKE because they're lovely!
Sheer Drop Theatre - Facebook Page - me LIKEy!
Also check out 'Lost & Found' on Facebook too, and if you're in Saffron Walden in August, get yourself to that maze!!
Lost & Found - Facebook Event
Write, I shall go now but I'll be back with tales of daring do etc etc etc
What will my blog be about?
I'm a new playwright, I'm just getting started and I've definitely got a lot to learn. So my blog will be about that journey (cue cheesy moment at the end of a celebrity trip up a mountain).
Now this blog doesn't come in at the very beginning of that 'journey'. I've already been extremely lucky and had my first full length play produced. It all happened a little suddenly and a little by accident, if I'm being honest.
I was asked by two fellow drama school graduates (yes I'm a trained actress darling, though under a different name) if I would write a play for them to put on at The Courtyard, Shoreditch. I had written a few very short (5 minutes) plays at drama school which they had liked, so they trusted me to write a full length two hander!!
At first I didn't think I could do it, 5 minutes is very different to 80 and I thought I lacked the ability to go beyond a couple of pages. I did manage it and I really surprised myself - this is something I want to do more of, lots and lots more of!
The brief I was given was wonderfully loose, only two characters (1M, 1F) and it had to be modern day and relevant.
What are subjects we hear a lot about? Bankers and student debt/unemployment I thought, so I went with that. A banker and a struggling student together in a hotel room equals 'Printed Linen' - my first full length play!
I learnt an awful lot from the experience and I am incredibly grateful to Glass to Wall Productions for staging my first play. They made a lovely poster, here it is:
As the run was only 6 nights, we failed to get a reviewer in, but I did get some great feedback from audience members, so that has given me the confidence to keep writing, and now I've started I can't seem to stop! I love it.
So onwards and upwards (up the mountain). I am currently writing the play 'Lost & Found' which has been commissioned by the Saffron Walden Maze Festival and it will be performed on the town's ancient turf maze! It is being produced by Sheer Drop Theatre who are a fantastic new writing company who have been very supportive to me (their artistic director Tom Latter did the dramaturgy for 'Printed Linen').
Check out Sheer Drop's Facebook Page and give 'em a LIKE because they're lovely!
Sheer Drop Theatre - Facebook Page - me LIKEy!
Also check out 'Lost & Found' on Facebook too, and if you're in Saffron Walden in August, get yourself to that maze!!
Lost & Found - Facebook Event
Write, I shall go now but I'll be back with tales of daring do etc etc etc
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