HIYA,
How are you? And I mean that as a genuine ‘how are you?’ not a ‘what are you up to right now?’ How are you? Drop me a message and let
me know, maybe if you’re northern based we can go for a coffee (I drink coffee
now, I am a new woman. I know this is not world bending news but as an avid
tea-drinker, I never thought I might partake in a coffee or two a day.) and
talk about it more (unless you’re a murderer then fuck off).
I recently took part in a project with Coney in Hexham along
with 5 other fantastic local artists. The car rides home were just as fruitful
as the sessions, as Millie Harris & Kat Pierce of Theatre Hoodang fame &
I courageously, selflessly and hilariously embarked on single handedly (triple handedly?)
addressing the fact that as artists, in our experiences, we are often only ‘semi-honest’
with ourselves and each other.
SO on the theme of honesty, I thought I would finally use
this blog that has been rotting away in the depth of a garish floral square of
the net to be honest about a few things.
As I haven’t used this platform in a very long time, I may
just skim over a few things I hope to cover in more detail in a future post. On
that note, I am making a March resolution right now, that I am going to aim to
update this blog post weekly (or at least fortnightly), at least until my
website is finished.
Read on for clumsy explanations, excuses, provocations and
ponderings on why this hole in the internet has been absent of my ramblings for
so long.
HERE GOES! SINCE MY LAST POST IN MAY 2016 (!!!!!!!!) I …
·
Am in a
new relationship with someone who I’m not going to talk about on this area
of the internet but does make AMAZING homemade pizza. Like seriously, why would
I blog when there is dough-a-flippin’ in the kitchen????
·
TOOK ‘SACRE
BLUE’ TO EDINBURGH FRINGE. This will almost definitely be a follow up blog
post as it literally threw me off my practice for about 3 months and made me
question EVERYTHING. I think under the circumstances, me and Tory made a really
fun show that effected lots of people in lots of different ways and I am proud
of the way that this work engaged with certain groups of people. There is also
a whole load of other stuff that comes with this being my first solo work and
something that was being a closely watched process by a lot of different people
and I am not in a rush to revisit this show again any time soon. That being
said, this was a really pivotal time in exploring what voice it is that needs
to be put out into the world and I am grateful to all the people that helped
make this happen.
·
MADE
& TOURED ‘THE LAMPPOST PETITION’. This is the show that I did talk
about in my last post almost a year ago. I had an absolute bloody BLAST making
and touring this piece. I worked and collaborated with so many wonderful older
people, chatted to so many great charity and social workers, had a brilliant
team and a great time making this work as part of ‘Bridging the Gap’ scheme. This
piece is the most completed out of all my previous works but still has stuff to
be done to it. I am looking to tour this piece again VERY SOON.
·
GOT A
CHRONIC CONDITION THAT MAKES ME VERY VERY TIRED & UNABLE TO WORK IN THE WAY
I WAS PREVIOUSLY (BUT on the bright side and in the spirit of adapting
& not getting too down about it I also…)
·
BECAME AN
ASSOCIATE ARTIST OF ARC STOCKTON. Yay! Honestly, this venue and the people
that make it are so so bloody important. Their ethos is just bang on and I am
at my happiest working there and with them. This is what an arts centre
should/could and can feel like.
·
MOVED
INTO A NEW STUDIO. After realising that working from home was totally counterproductive
as I am absolutely and irrationally obsessed with Undercover Boss USA, I spent
a little bit of time hot-desking in the wonderful Greyscale Studio at Breeze
Creative’s Bamburgh House. This was super lush as it proved to me that I
absolutely do work better in a ‘place of admin work’. And then a studio became
available at Space 6 in Commercial Union House where I could work surrounded by
other great makey-people. So now I have my own space that I have spent the last
couple of weeks painting, organising, wiggling round AND creating in. I bloody
love it, I feel like a proper adult here. But in a cool ‘I can use this fancy
hot water machine thing’ way rather than a scary ‘wtf is a tax return’ way. The
amazing Amy Golding (Curious Monkey) and super lush Maria Crocker (The Letter
Room) are currently waving at me through the window on their route to the
kitchen.
·
SPENT A
LOT OF TIME LEARNING. I’ve been trying to break away from my usual
technique of WHACKING OUT A HUGE METAPHORICAL KNIFE AND STABBING IN THE DARK
WHILST RUNNING AROUND SCREAMING and actually spend some time learning,
workshopping and listening. I had a brilliant 2 days in Manchester with
Scottee, a fab 2 days in York with York Theatre Royal & the Young Vic, an
energising time in Hexham with Coney as well as taking part in
workshops/discussions and surgeries more locally, in addition to helping
artists earlier in their career than me and broadening my reading lists and
inspirations.
·
BEEN
WRITING. Short texts, manifesto’s, scripts, nonsense. All of it. Except
blog posts, obv.
·
STARTED
PERFORMING AT SPOKEN WORD NIGHTS AGAIN. As part of my own political
activism I performed some poetry at Wearside Women in Need event in Sunderland,
and out of this I have started performing a bit more locally. I also performed
a piece about Brexit in Manchester as part of ‘True Tales: Undivided’.
·
BEGAN
CREATING A NEW PIECE. ‘Will there be
stew…?’ is a piece I am currently in the early early stages of exploring.
It is a sort-of follow up to The Lamppost
Petition and will be looking at themes of heritage, home and Irish
identity. I am absolutely buzzing because ARC have set me up with Deborah
Pearson who is INCREDIBLE and she will be mentoring me throughout this process.
·
MAKING A
WEBSITE. So I actually have some form of online presence outside of cat
memes on twitter.
There ya go. That’s about it really. Oh yeah and trying to ignore the fact that the world is
floating around like a crouton of despair in a soup of global chaos whilst
still playing my small part in making it tastier. I don’t really know where
I’m going with that metaphor but basically as you’ll all be more than aware of
- things are odd right now & it’s hard to keep your head up when there’s so
much to be done and it seems never ending.
So what’s next?
-
I’m performing an early collection and gathering
of ideas at GIFT Festival (Gateshead
International Festival of Theatre) on Friday 28th March. This will
be in the form of a site specific live art durational performance at St Mary’s
Heritage Centre and is free and open to all. I’ll also be performing my Brexit
poem as an opening act for another piece of work the following day.
-
I’m working on a cabaret performance. Hopefully
going to be working with Mother’s Ruin at ARC Stockton to create a short piece.
-
I’m working with another live artist to explore
themes of happiness
-
I’m working with Coney and other local artists
to create a piece for Hexham.
Hopefully write again before another 10 months passes.
Chat
soon bbz.
xoxoxoxo
