mto do crewe
After a three month break, the Modified Toy Orchestra are back in rehearsals in preparation for spring gigs. The opening show takes us to Axis Arts Centre, Crewe, on the 22nd February, with other appearances yet to be confirmed.
Excitement over possible international dates will wait, though. The mood at Brian’s is subdued, as people come to terms with the tragic passing of Trish Keenan, lead singer with Broadcast and friend of the Toy Orchestra. (Guardian feature/obituary)
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the cardinals: rehearsals
Here’s a glimpse into the rehearsal room at AEHarris for Stan’s Cafe’s current opus, The Cardinals, which will premiere at Domaine d’O, Montpellier on the 8th Feb. After a fortnight’s pre-Christmas R&D, 4th performer Alia Alzougbi has been recruited for the role of the ‘stage manager’. Thankfully, the space is gradually warming up after a bitterly cold start to the week. Stan’s Cafe are not unfamiliar with cold working conditions and Gerard and I discuss the fact that there’s a dissertation to be written about the impact of debilitating cold on independent theatre-making.
Lampy Paul ‘Arvo’ Arvidson joined us yesterday, as did designer Miguel, replete with boxes of accessories (many bought at his local Catholic supermarket in the Eternal City). Here’s a sneak preview of some of the visuals [NB: finished product may not necessarily contain all of illustrated items];
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talisman
Amongst the hundreds of tiny images that float down in the epiphanic final third of the current Bodies In Flight performance I chanced upon this one. To anyone living in the vicinity of Mary St., Balsall Heath, up until a couple of years ago he will be recognisable as the ghost-like shaman who occupied the doorway of the barber’s shop on Edgbaston St.
He is The Smoking Man. And he’ll be with me in my pocket tonight for Model Love.
This likeness was captured by Ed Dimsdale before The Smoking Man disappeared from the streets, passing into another, hopefully better place not long after this picture was taken.
its lustre, its hues…. its dusks and its dawns….
we are the inconstant, fragmentary things….
give everything to life, unstinting….
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Tags: the smoking man
model love
photo: Ed Dimsdale
A rare and perhaps final opportunity to see Bodies In Flight’s Model Love this friday (7th January) in the ‘Theatre 2’ space at Bristol University’s Dept. of Theatre & Film Studies. The performance will feature as part of an international symposium on Technologies of Transmediality, hosted by the Department. Model Love is a collaboration between Bodies in Flight and photographer Ed Dimsdale in which a collection of photo love-stories are dwelt-upon, probed and viscerated – investigating relations between the Image and Memory. This fifth version of the project will feature songs and sounds from Sam Halmarack (fresh from his exploits with The Miserablites) with myself on words and modest motions. Text/direction is by Simon Jones and choreography by Sara Giddens.
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Tags: bodiesinflight, model love
bang-a-gong
Vesalius: a Requiem has been name-checked as one of the Adelaide Advertiser’s top 10 shows of the year. Great news for Various People (aka. Cheryl Pickering&Richard Chew) who have just arrived back in the UK to remind themselves of what they’re missing. There are plans afoot to restage another of Rick’s monumental compositions – the song-cycle solitary (originally staged at Lincoln Gaol under our Resurrectionists moniker back in 1998/9). Meanwhile the Adelaide Advertiser is also predicting growth in the Arts for the coming year despite belt-tightening elsewhere. A sign perhaps that Australia is bucking the trend by encouraging investment in its cultural assets.
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boo radley
A blockboard star and a camel and a fort:
Three cardinals and the greatest story ever told.
A broken camera-phone and a struggling car.
the usual chaos and crisis management
the budget festivities and the carefully executed control of expectations;
the postcard winter landscapes and scuppered family travel-plans;
the boiler that’s packed up with 2 days to go
heart-warming offerings;
someone’s discarded sample bottle asleep on the snow
and an arguing couple in a supermarket car-park – “Why did ya jump out the fookin’ window, ya spaz?!” she cries
the surprising animal ejaculations through a wall at teatime
the scratching of a kitchen visitor in the dead of night.
The lingering shadows of various 2010 disappointments
and the spectre of more ahead…
and the memories of many fantastic moments
from a mad, troubled, crazy, beautiful, adventurous, carefree and at times will-sapping year of extremes.
There is a tired face in the mirror, telling me I need to finish this chapter. Let go.
… then I stumble across it on ITV3. I’m trying to remember the sequence of events but it’s been years. I’m shocked by the revelation of defendant Tom’s shooting and I’m on the edge of my seat when the children of Atticus Finch are stopped, attacked, then saved in the woods. I know I’m gonna crack… and sure enough when Boo appears behind the door and the little girl says his name…. I crumple, just like every time.
There’s a flood. And the Festive TV has barely started.
Merry Christmas everyone. Merry Christmas xxx
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bouncy castle and surprises
Birmingham City Council this week released news of its impending funding cuts and surprise, surprise! …. the independent contemporary arts get the slash. Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Fierce, Big Brum, Women & Theatre and Stan’s Cafe….and more (link to Birmingham Post article)
Here’s something to cheer us up through all the current gloom-mongering. A theatre(ish) party (which means normal people are also invited). We’re doing our level best to warm the place up in rehearsals this week and by saturday the jive will be certainly jumpin’.
Be there.
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extended play
45
today
and happy.
one of the toughest assignments came to fruition last night.
The Bristol Uni Dept. of Theatre & Film Studies ‘Performance 2’ project is now realised. A devised theatre piece collated from verbatim texts, transcribed from interviews sourced from nights out in the City: The streets, the pubs and clubs. Rakes For Feet is the culmination of a term’s workshopping and research but has only really taken shape in the last 10 days. It has been a tortuous process – stressful and exhausting for all. The relief after yesterday’s successful first night is difficult to express. I feel like I’ve aged more than my allocated extra year (…..or maybe I’ve finally aged to my actual year?) Whatever – some recovery time is now needed.
That can be for tomorrow, though ….because on monday we recommence with the devising period for the new Stan’s Cafe show, The Cardinals.
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Pilot round-up
A huge thank you to everyone – artists and audience alike – who made it to the Thanksgiving Day PILOT on thursday. I’m still cold turkeying from it. The evening embraced everything that makes Pilot such a stimulating event; from the outrageously fun to the downright terrifying. I’d like to encourage anyone who was there at mac to contribute to the Pilotnights Blog, in which reactions to the pieces – however small, can be shared and forwarded to the artists. Pilot is all about giving artists the opportunity to test new work and get feedback. With the evening ending later than anticipated (cutting down on valuable bar-room chat-time) your blog comments are still much appreciated. Click here to get to the Blog
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PILOTnight line-up
PILOT, the West Midlands’ playground for experimental theatre, returns this Thursday with a fresh crop of artists providing Thanksgiving Day treats. Though take note: This will be a turkey-free zone!
November’s PILOT presents a wealth of ideas and theatrical talent from six companies from the West Midlands and beyond. Variously reflective, comic and spectacular, these extracts promise to entertain, surprise and inspire.
Thursday’s exciting line-up includes Kings of England’s poignant and reflective In Elldersfield: Chapter 1, Elegy for Paul Dirac, Blossom Theatre’s Tell Me About Your Ex, which invites audience members to share stories about their former partners and 101 Music-Theatre’s intense musical narrative between ex-lovers Interview A: Interview B. Coventry’s New Macho plan the perfect party with Fearless Enjoyment, Peter Fletcher opens up his family albums in Three Times Hotter than Bournemouth, while funny-mongers The Dog-Eared Collective present their anarchic and darkly surreal brand of interactive comedy in The Dog-Eared Collective & You!
As if this wasn’t enough, providing live music for the evening will be our ‘house-band’, Sam Halmarack & The Miserablites, ambassadors of interactive stadium pop. Get ready for hand-clapping anthems and electro music made to move and inspire. Join in the Feeling!
PILOT is a regular programme of ‘scratch’ nights organised jointly by Sam Fox and Jess Mackinnon of Kindle Theatre, Paul Warwick of China Plate Theatre and guest curators. This edition is co-Piloted by me, Graeme Rose, a founder of theatre companies Stan’s Cafe and The Resurrectionists and a member of The Modified Toy Orchestra.
Tickets £5(£4), available from mac box office (0121) 446-3232
(online at www.macarts.co.uk.) or on the door, which opens at 7pm.
For further information contact info@pilotnights.co.uk.
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