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in residency

February 22, 2012

I recently picked up I like the way you wear your hair for back-to-back development residencies at BAC and The Basement. It’s an autobiographical piece about being a teenager and the safety of your bedroom. It was an absolute gift to have two weeks set aside to be an artist; to write, pace, stick post-its on the wall, drink coffee and talk to the walls. The piece grew in every way due to the attention and the feedback of the generous audiences who came to see the scratch showings. Thanks, BAC and The Basement.

I’m very pleased to say I’ll be performing the piece at The Basement in Brighton as part of a double bill (along with Superbard) Wednesday 18th April. Look here for tickets and the full Spring 2012 Programme. And watch out for some more exciting announcements very soon regarding upcoming outings for the piece in London and beyond.

While alone in the studio (OBVIOUSLY between serious artistic thinking about THE WORK), I played around with some images from the piece with my camera and a mirror. Look:

More images here if you’re into that kind of thing.

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Homebrewed

January 30, 2012

I’ve been pulling together a new project for a little while now, and today I’m pleased to announce Homebrewed, a night of true stories. 4 people telling 10-minute tales.

I’ve been really interested lately in true stories and what makes them compelling, what can make them theatrical and why I love hearing them so much. I’ve been obsessed with The Moth and Risk! for awhile. Listening to those podcasts and hearing people tell true stories has made me laugh out loud, shed a little tear or make cringey faces on public transportation many times. So I thought it would be awesome to organise a night where a bunch of people got together and heard some brilliant people tell true stories.

I’ve been to a few other true storytelling events in London, and found that while they were very nice, they weren’t quite what I saw in my head. Some of them felt a little stagey, at some it felt like the storytellers were verging a little too far into Performing and self-promotion for my liking, and at some I just didn’t feel very welcome.

The aim of Homebrewed is to build an evening out of those awesome nights at the pub where you have a few too many pints and start telling stories. You divulge things, you have a laugh and learn a little about other people. I want to give us all an excuse to have one of those nights. Homebrewed is relaxed, supportive and friendly. And importantly it will never take place in a traditional performance space.

Here’s the vital info:

When: Thursday, 23rd February (18.30 for drinks, 19.00 event starts)
Where: LXV Books on Roman Road.
Tickets: Buy one secondhand book in the shop that evening and that will admit you to Homebrewed.

I’m pleased to announce the terrific people telling true stories at Homebrewed:

Anne Langford
Ryan Millar
Tiffany Charrington
Stephen Connery-Brown.

Please do come out and support them, it will be all kinds of awesome. RVSP on Facebook here or just show up on the night.

One more thing. Why is it called Homebrewed, you ask? Well, it’s for a few reasons. The first one is that the word implies a sense of DIY; of cobbling something together and concocting something with a few ingredients and a little elbow grease, but also taking care to mix things just how you want them and making it with a little of yourself thrown in. That’s how stories at Homebrewed should be.

The other thing is that my dad used to brew beer with his friends when I was a kid (there was a very fizzy root beer option for my sister and me), and they would have these nights where they would work on the upcoming batch while drinking the previous one. Everyone would sit around the kitchen table laughing and telling stories, and when I think of what I want for the feel of Homebrewed, that’s it.

Hope you can make it.

 

EDIT: Catriona James will now be joining us to tell a true tale. LUCKY YOU.

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walking down Main St

January 3, 2012

I was in Arcola, Illinois for Christmas. Arcola is famous for things like a precision lawn mower drill team (the Lawn Rangers), an Amish theme park and the Hippie Memorial.

I took a walk down Main St and saw some things. Here they are.

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LASD

December 18, 2011

I just want to get some thoughts down here about Live Art Speed Date and one-to-one performance before I lose them.

Live Art Speed Date is basically a night where audience members shuffle around to loads of artists spread all around the building for 4-minute one-to-one encounters. I had a great experience doing The Backseat of My Car (and other safe places) this weekend at STK. It’s a one-to-one performance in a car, and involves a bit of storytelling where the audience member becomes someone in the story.

It was my first experience on the artist end of a one-to-one piece, and I learned loads from it—from STK, from the other artists involved and from my audience members—but there are two major things that I want to make sure to carry forward. I don’t know that they’re necessarily universal Things about one-to-ones, but they apply to the way I’d like to work carrying forward:

1. Take care of your audience member. In the one-to-one context—moreso than in a more conventional theatre set up or any kind of performance where there’s a performer performing to a group—it became apparent to me what a responsibility it is for the artist to take care of the audience member. You can lead them to uncomfortable places and the experience doesn’t necessarily have to be just frothy and frivolous (though that’s fun too), but you have to recognize that they are brave in stepping into an unknown encounter where you’re in charge. I had lovely, amazing, generous audience members most of the time, and I want to make sure, going forward, that I’m prepared to reward them for taking chances in the context of the performance.

2. It’s ok for performances to be gentle. I had a nice chat with another artist about how it can be difficult—when other people are doing amazing, thrilling, colourful, loud performances—to feel that it’s ok to be gentle, quiet or melancholic, and that can be enough. It’s nice to have different textures and styles, and they’re all important.

I had some very lovely/funny/uncomfortable moments with my audience members, and I was genuinely astounded by the generosity of some people, giving themselves up and coming with me for four minutes. Looking forward to discovering more about how one-to-one performance can work.

Thanks to STK for letting me do it.

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Uploading Sarah

October 15, 2011

A little while back I posted about a Straight 8 film by Doug and me called Sarah, which screened at the ICA with lots of other brilliant Straight 8 films.

I’ve finally got around to uploading it, and here it is:

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going solo

October 1, 2011

I’ve just finished a few performances of I never even killed a bird at The Yard. It’s a storytelling piece with projected illustration that started life a few months ago at Samantha’s Sunday Night Supper Club. I had loads of fun and had some really great audiences in.

It was such a funny experience, sharing a bit about my life with an audience in the context of a show, but I was reminded how much I really love connecting with people in that context and how much people appreciate it when a performer really shares something of themselves. Loveliness all around.

Also: I got to draw some things…


 

 

…and I made up a song.

 

So thank you super-mega-bigtime to:

-everyone at The Yard for making what they’ve made (which is pretty special) and giving me the opportunity and an excuse to try out my little idea. If you haven’t been there yet, go. It’ll only be there through October. Great art, nice people, gorgeous food.

-Camille Bozzini for providing me with perfect publicity illustrations.

-Othello Woolf for letting me use his music in my trailer and in the show.

-Tom Elstob (The Idol Rich) for helping me make up a song.

-Hetty and Bryony for providing me with an essential outside eye when I started going crazy in a rehearsal room on my own.

All photos by the amazing Katherine Leedale.

And lastly, I’m THRILLED to say I’ll be performing I never even killed a bird on two more occasions this month:

October 13th, 7pm at LVX Books in Bethnal Green. It will be a lovely little intimate performance in the bookshop. Looking forward to doing some storytelling surrounded by books.

October 28th and 29th as part of the nabokov Arts Club at BAC. This will be an awesome night by nabokov, filling every space at BAC with theatre, comedy, performance, happenings, music, DJs, etc. It will basically be All The Art. You’ll find me both nights tucked in an upstairs room with a fire in the fireplace projecting on the walls and telling a story. I’m beyond excited about this.

PLEASE DO come to either (or both!) of these. I promise they’ll be awesome. And totally fun.

I mean, Inmate Renshaw will be there…

All for now.

G

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Shedspotting

July 20, 2011

A couple of months ago I had the pleasure of co-directing a film with Doug Lyon for Straight 8.

The competition involves making a film on a Super 8 camera with a single roll. No editing, no retakes. You just shoot the film, record the audio and send it in. The first time you ever see your own film is at a screening with everyone else.

Our film is called ‘Sarah’, and it’s about a lovely lady called Sarah. Sarah’s favourite book is The British Locomotive Shed Directory, and she loves nothing more than to jump on a train with a flask and a packed lunch and head out for a full day of spotting. Shedspotting.

The idea for the film came from an improvisation weekend I did with Likely Story a few months back. Sarah came from a character Anne Langford created while we were improvising in a bookshop, and Doug and I thought the character of a wistful shedspotter would fit the nostalic feel of the Super 8 perfectly.

The beauty of Straight 8 is that it’s all about getting out there and doing it. Aside from playing around in Dorset awhile back, I had never made a film before. Neither Doug nor I had ever used a Super 8 camera before, but under the pressure of creating a film on one roll, we just had to jump in and go for it.

I learned loads, and I know there were loads of things both of us would do differently if we did it again, but that’s kind of the point of doing it, I guess. You gotta make stuff to get better at making stuff.

‘Sarah’ was chosen to be screened at the ICA next week as part of Rushes Soho Shorts Festival which we’re mega-pleased about. We’ll be there, and in front of an audience we’ll see our film for the first time. You can get a ticket here if you fancy coming along to a night of Straight 8 films. Ours will be on Tues, the 26th July.

So thanks to Doug, Hetty and Anne (who played Sarah) for making the film, thanks to Dentsu London and Straight 8 for giving us an excuse to do it, and congratulations to the other Dentsu teams who were chosen for screenings.

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the1four1 of the3six5

May 22, 2011

I’ve been keeping up with the3six5 all year. It’s a fantastic project by Len Kendall and Daniel Honigman in which someone from somewhere in the world writes a post each day about their experience of that day. It’s super-lovely and really varied. It’s thoughtful, funny and brave.

Yesterday, 21st May, day 141, I contributed a post to the project. Check it out here along with all the other posts. I’ve also reposted it below.

Today it was hot—or at least hot in London terms. Six years in the UK and my concept of hot weather has changed dramatically; I’ve suppressed my inner Texan. The second the sun made an appearance this morning I headed to the park to shiver on a blanket. London Fields was packed with cut-off shorts, barbecues, rosé, twiddly mustaches and tramps.

A day experienced in bits and pieces. Satisfaction in unrelated things mashed together. Like a unicorn sandwich.

Today I saw a baby receive a personal performance of “The Wheels on the Bus” from a lager-swigging busker in the park. The baby’s parents both took videos on their iPhones of the baby gurgling and dribbling on its shirt, but I thought the busker was more interesting. At least he could play the banjo.

I guess I’m not much of a baby person.

Today my girlfriend and I talked about names. It’s a recurring game that started a few years ago with ridiculous cat names, but now we’ve progressed to hypothetical baby names. If we ever have a baby girl she wants to name it Anna-Nicole, Miracle or Shirley.

Today I didn’t go for a run. I’m resting a self-diagnosed sprained big toe in the lead up to the Stockholm Marathon next week.

Today I listened to pigeons outside my bedroom window. A friend once told me that when pigeons coo it always sounds like they’re saying, “My foot hurts, Betty”. Now whenever pigeons are around it’s all I can think about.

Today I had an impromptu photo shoot with my cat, Mona. What started out as a couple of quick snaps to catch her looking out the window at a pigeon turned into an hour-long feline modeling session in which I tried to capture the essence of her soul in a single definitive portrait. I think I may have succeeded.

And today I’ve had the urge to listen to Fleetwood Mac. I’m not saying it’s because of Glee’s recent Rumours episode, but I’m also not saying it isn’t.

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The Elephant and the Goldfish

April 22, 2011

I started a photo-a-day project, inspired by the fantastic ‘Today’ by Jonathan Harris.

It’s called The Elephant and the Goldfish. I’m hoping it will be like a stake in the ground for each day.

The week in photos:

black cat

Jacket on Regents Canal

Margot

Mona by the window

Oxford Circus

on the 8

Ostrich + Wolf

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Harry Potter and the Holding Cell Scabies

April 18, 2011

Last weekend I performed at Samantha’s Stately Sunday Night Supper Club in the basement of Bethnal Green Working Mens Club. I decided to tell a story—a true story—accompanied by projected illustrations. It was the story of a night in Sherman, Texas—May 2003—when a few friends and I went to The Orphanage.

It also happens to be the true story of the night we spent in Grayson County Jail.

The police had apparently been called away from the Taco Bell drive-thru to bust us for trespassing. One of which was this lovely policewoman with the front bottom:

We learned a number of things while behind bars, including (but not limited to) the following:

•a shoe makes a decent pillow in a pinch
•prison food is surprisingly tasty (esp. the chocolate cake)
•jail doesn’t take Mastercard
•do not make eye contact with cellmates who are still drunk
•warm ups from acting class are good for relaxation
•holding time=bonding time

My badass prison name was Harry Potter. At least that’s what my cellmates called me.

No joke.

Here are a few of my fellow inmates:

Red Polo Shirt Man was a friendly sort of guy. He was wise; a sort of father of the cell. He was arrested for embezzlement. He wasn’t really wearing spurs–those would have been confiscated–this is just an artist’s representation.


Thin Man was a sickly looking guy who spent a lot of time huddled on a bench. Seeing him reminded me of something I heard once about Sherman being the meth capitol of Texas.

Singing Guy was one of my favourites, and not just because he reminded me of Coolio. He spent time making up songs and telling the guards that we didn’t deserve to be there because we had never even killed a bird. He also helpfully pointed out a female inmate who had “deep nipples”.

Supper Club was super-duper fun, with a fantastically lovely audience who was really supportive of this story’s first outing.

Mega-thanks are in order to Vera and Adrian of Saltpeter (and of course the lovely Samantha) for having me along. Also to Camille Bozzini for her powers of illustration (all the above are by her). And Daniel Johnson for lending me a projector.

And thanks to my fellow arrestees/inmates: Tiny, Nails, Laces and Piss Ant.

Strong are the bonds that are forged behind bars.

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