Hannah Nicklin - Blog

2009-07-28T23:16:00.005+01:00

I HAVE MOVED
Please update your links, I am now at http://www.hannahnicklin.com/

Well I have been squirrelling away the past few days, and I have finally moved my web-ness over to Wordpress. hannahnicklin.co.uk now redirects to hannahnicklin.com. Where you'll now find my blog (the main page) as well as the usual info. Reasons for the move include wanting to drop Google Analytics in so I can see who views what from where, having a simpler, more cohesive design, and the fact that really, my blog is the most active part of all of this, so I should really have it on the front page.

I'd love feedback on the new design etc. It's still in it's infancy, and while I've ported over all my old posts, I need to tweak everything for readability, links, fonts etc. And am thinking about adding about maybe adding a 'media' section... thoughts on a post card. Or a comment box, whatever you like.

Hx

"Phone numbers have changed"

2009-07-24T10:20:00.001+01:00

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2009-07-23T18:40:00.011+01:00

Theatre people I follow on Twitter...

So quite a few people have added me recently after reading my guide to Twitter for Arts Orgs which I put out into the ether. I love that it's out there getting people trying new tech. Because I know it can be a bit daunting trying to find people to follow at first, I was going to do a quick #theatrethursday to suggest a few fellow theatrical tweeps, but the list got too long, so I decided to blog it instead.

CAVEAT: I still think there's much more value in finding interesting people, before things you are interested in , and also something wonderful in the discovery of new people through serendipity, so please, please don't add everyone on here. Make sure you are interested in what they are saying. It's not a networking opportunity, it's a conversation, that conversation might lead somewhere, but that shouldn't be the main aim of it. Some of the big names aren't on here because I don't like the way they use Twitter, always just putting in plugs for shows, rather than participating. However I obviously do think these people worth following, because I do, so I'm not too worried about putting it out - just use it wisely :) and if you're new-don't fill your stream up too soon!

Finally, the list is by no means exhaustive, and I may also have missed big people off if a) I don't know about them myself, or b) I don't know a particular person I follow is a theatre person, as opposed to just an interesting person. If you have any to add, tweet with the #theatrethursday hashtag, or comment here and I'll add them!

So, in order of most recent to oldest follow:

@braduniarts the theatre venues at the University of Bradford
@dastheatre a 'theatrically confrontational' Leicester/London based theatre company.
@hellohoipolloi the lovely hoipolloi, presented on their excellent use of video blogging at Shift Happens arts/tech conference.
@EdinburghFringe No explanation needed hopefully, does anyone want to pay for me to go? Please? Pretty Please?
@Goldele theatre maker
@danielbuckroyd Artistic Director of New Perspectives
@trestletheatre my first theatrical experience (aside from Panto) was a Trestle Workshop. Ace.
@stevebct co-artistic director of Black Country Touring, who facilitate and create theatre in the Black Country. Brilliant company.
@untheatre Unlimited Theatre based in Leeds, they did The Moon The Moon recently, which was lovely.

@claireridgway West Midlands creative looking to hook up with local companies.

@RDouglasJohson writer of plays and text-adventures (he's done a hillarious Hamlet one, check out his blog for a link) Also has a play 'Broken Holmes' on at Edinburgh this year. One of the wittiest writers I know.
@battersea_arts Battersea Arts Centre (the clue's in the name)
@lpostlethwaite Theatre maker, community artist, and educator.
@AbbigailWright Head of comms at York Theatre Royal (Shift Happen venue, and home to Pilot Theatre)
@KatHetherington lovely, met at Shift Happens, can't for the life of me remember her title, but she's a theatre person.
@Jakeyoh young critic-blogger
@scbedford from HoiPolloi, charming.
@Dramagirl theatre lover, actor, voice coach and web 2.0 superwoman.
@Geraldinecoll Apples and Snakes performance poetry - seen at Shift Happens
@scarahnellis another Apples and Snakes type...
@Robintheoffice -Birmingham Royal Ballet New Media Officer, not strictly theatre, but a brill example of an arts organisation using Twitter well.
@Katherine_Ann over saw much of Shift Happens 2.0, organisation queen, like a Tasmanian Devil, but in reverse.
@willsudlow another creative project manager type
@adrianslatcher of the Get Ambition tweeps
@eatsoupandroll Leeds based playwright
@mediasnackers they enable digital participation in lots of areas, including theatre.
@getambITion The ACE digital tech and theatre touring workshop
@hannahrudman queen of the above and cultural leader.
@thisisdavid has a show on in Edinburgh this year
@digijamie Get ambITion and local arts bod
@ammonite pervasive gaming, so awesome, the bleeding edge of digital/performance cross over. If you don't know what any of that means, go find out!
@IanAspin does a lot of work with creative industries
@WirelessTheatre online audio theatre company - radio plays, stories and sketches for free download.
@Traversetheatre the brilliant new writing theatre and excellent Edinburgh venue
@pcmcreative does lots of things that combine social media and the digital world with theatre
@TWPGoSee Theatre Writing Partnership - new theatre writing in the East Midlands, brilliant company who gave me my first ever taste of playwriting back in 2004 (I currently do some freelance online comms for them)
@citizendan performer and writer
@scriptonline Regional development agency for theatre writers in the West Midlands
@michelleyascapi General Manager of Foursight Theatre, future cultural leader
@Foursightheatre My first ever 'proper' job in the arts was as their Administrator. They are a lovely West Midlands based, female-led devising company. Best known for Thatcher The Musical! But they also do some lovely site specific community based work.
@Danielbye writer and director
@uglysisterprod Ugly Sister Productions
@BushTheatre The Bush, look out for their excellent Bush Green new writing initiative - it's going to change the way the system works.
@easternangles I have much love for companies working the East of the Country - Eastern Angles
@HullTruck well known Yorkshire based company
@markball London based producer
@finkennedy had a big argument with The World about the funding new writers get. It was in the Guardian. Also a playwright.
@Half_Dextrous actor/writer
@CreativeSelby Arts Administrator
@andytfield 'maker of unusual things' a lovely fellow
@sohotheatre The Soho Theatre, innit.
@Lizzieroper actor
@bottc Box of Tricks Theatre Company, new writing, they run Word:Play new writing events, [PLUG] in which I am to have a short play early next year [/PLUG]
@librarytheatre Library Theatre Co. Manchester
@c_and_t TIE company - check out their brilliant 'living newspaper' project. And an excellent example of how many people can tweet for one organisation. Really on the ball with using new tech.
@arvonfoundation they do beautiful writer retreats with workshops, decent amount of theatre and radio writing opportunities. I wonder if I big them up enough they'll give me a free place? THEY'RE FUCKING BRILLIANT (Pretty please?)
@DaveMoutrey Arts Manager based in Manchester
@shift_happens THE arts and tech conference in the UK. Run by Pilot Theatre.
@DanRebellato playwright, academic, and general evil genius. Very funny, a masterclass in the subversion of the Twitter 'form'.
@LondonTheatre Theatre researcher/maker/blogger
@Paul_Sutton Artistic Director of C&T
@pilot_theatre bloody brilliant York-based theatre company. Ran Shift-Happens. Pushing boundaries, making wonderful messes.
@MarcusRomer the daddy of Pilot Theatre and Shift Happens, lovely, generous, and very, very on the ball. A must-follow.
@mzendle journo and critic.

Phew! Have I missed you? I'm sorry, there's only so much space in my brain! Comment, and I'll add you :-)

I'm all hyperlinked out...

The Travelling Moleskine, @CannonGod: ask and you shall receive.

2009-07-21T01:17:00.001+01:00

My contribution to the Travelling Moleskine. It shall be back off on its travels tomorrow. I followed the theme 'what are you doing now'. To which my answer usually is thinking. So I wrote/drew some of my thoughts. Half of them are about beautiful images/moments/ideas on my mind right now, and the other half is things that make me angry or sad.

I would like to correct one thing though- I missed 'cyber' out - I'm actually an anarcho-eco-socialist-cyber-feminist. Just so ya know.

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2009-07-19T21:58:00.004+01:00

Final day of pictures from Paris, impressionism, expressionism, clocks, and feminist graffiti.

Oh and the Bastille too. The monument to which is unceremoiously planted right in the middle of an extremely busy roundabout. But there you go. I went there, and thought a bit about all of the people who die fighting for a better world for the many, not the few.

I also (as you can see) found all of the bits I wanted to see in the Musée d'Orsay, including some stunning, stunning expressionism. Compelled to pick up my paints again. Last time I had money - well, the last time I had a regular wage coming in at least - I picked up some oils, normally I use acrylics, but was interested in trying something a bit different, may try an experimental still life one evening this week.

Did some more wandering, came across some more live music in Notre Dame, and had a very good sandwich for lunch (why is French mayo so much tastier?). No picture of that but I have included a picture of my meal last night. Nom.

I loved the Metro, genius, easy to use, frequent, and all over the place, one journée or Paris Visite billet and you've the freedom of the city, really. Helped me do my fave bit of the trip, which aside from the paintings was the wandering and exploring.

Other pictures are just stuff wot I have seen. Including a scrawled 'SEXISTE' over the ridiculous pornographic big breasted animal Orangina advert, that I think Ofcom investigated in the UK. Pretty simple provocative women=base animal status. More people should subvertise these kind of posters. Remind me to carry a thick marker pen with me at all times. I can use it to correct apostrophe abuse too.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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From this afternoon...

2009-07-19T19:37:00.001+01:00

Download now or watch on posterous

IMG_0244.MOV (3692 KB)

Apparently Notre Dame is *the* place to find live music on your wanderings...

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2009-07-18T23:10:00.003+01:00

A Pilgrimage to the Cimetiere du Montparnasse, D'orsay, Eiffel, Notre Dame. And THE cake.

That seems like a lot of pictures, but it really is the tip of the iceberg... I'm a picture-y person I'm afraid. So yes, this morning began with a trip to Montparnasse - to the cemetery there, and to the graves of one of the mothers of feminism, and one of the fathers of modern theatre. Hard to explain what both mean to me. But let's go with 'a lot', shall we? I was sad to see Simone de Beauvoir over shadowed in death as well as life, sharing a tombstone, and second billing under Sartre. Probably many reasons for this, like he died first, and she probably did want to be buried with him... Love and all that. On the grave, aside from flowers, people had left their Metro billets weighed down with little stones - no other grave had that. Also, Beckett was well hard to find, amongst all of the ornate-as-hell tombs and stones and statues, just a flat piece of marble. With his name on it. And a bit of bird crap. Which I think he would have laughed at. Other things I did include 3/5 of the Musée d'Orsay, and the Eiffel Tower (though I didn't go up it - waiting time was at 4hours - fuck that shit. I do not like to wait). So I took some pictures, and then went to Notre Dame. Which wasn't very big. Nice and all. But I'm used to to Lincoln Cathedral... and I may be coming across as uncultured *shrugs* but I'm not so good at the 'landmark' stuff. Few marvels is good but there comes a point I'm all architechture-d out - I'd rather have a wander, which I then did. One of the best bits of the trip. Found awesome shops, bought a cake, did some sketches in a park, and came across a live band. All very cool. I really like wandering on my own. And it was brilliant to do a bit of drawing, there's something about trying to faithfully replicate that clears my mind entirely, with all my current money worries etc., it was brilliant to have it all wash away for a few hours.

Hold on, is this what people call 'relaxing'?

In the evening I had an awesome, awesome meal somewhere called 'Lui... Linsolent' - highly recommended - 15 rue Caulaincourt 75018 Paris, if you ever want anything to eat in Monmarte. Aside from all the prostitutes. Go there.

Tomorrow, I think, may be the Sacre-Cour - and the Van Goch in the d'Orsday, which I somehow missed. Apparently there are five floors. I only found three... So yes, thanks for your interest (or at least your attention, if you've read thus far)... my train leaves Paris at 5pm tomorrow, so will probably tweet anything exciting then.

Au revoir xx

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Rotated the viideo this time. This one's about cake. Mmmm...

2009-07-18T23:04:00.001+01:00

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IMG_0241_xvid_NEW.avi (3937 KB)

It was bloody tasty. See the next post for a picture of the actual cake...

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Some lives music I came across wandering around Notre Dame.

2009-07-18T21:47:00.001+01:00

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IMG_0238_mpeg4_003.mp4 (2339 KB)

The Latin Quarter - couldn't be bothered to queue to go in Notre Dame, was kind of landmarked out- so I went and did what I much prefer - wandered around 'til I got lost, and discovered things. I found a cake shop, an exhibition of the original character designs for Ice Age 3, a protest against Islamaphobia and came across some live music in a park. Which is hopefully what this is a video of. Hopefully. Some pics to follow, just wanted to see if this works...

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Paris Day 1 - Pictures and Plans (hopefully)

2009-07-17T23:26:00.001+01:00

One simple thing that rules about Posterous - the fact that you can post by email. So very useful when piggybacking on a poor frenchperson's intermittent NETGEAR wifi connection.

So yes, I'm pretty tired after a long day of travelling, but happy to be in France. Went down to the Louvre and surrounding area after we got here, just a bit of exploring, then tea, and back.

My big plan is for tomorrow - intention is to do the Cimetiére du Montparnasse (definitely have to find Simone De Beauvoir) then the Eiffel Tower (because you have to really, don't you?) and then Musée d'Orsay (I'm an impresssion/expressionist kind of gal) before lunch in the Jardin des Tuileries, Notre Dame, and if time permits, the Musée Picasso... Probably impossible, but worth a go.

Weather was pretty changeable here, warm breeze, showers etc. I am consoled by the fact that by the look of Twitter, it's probably raining more in England.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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2009-07-16T19:06:00.008+01:00

Me and my brother

Graduation

So graduation was pretty standard, and don't worry, I did all of my commenting on how dull and full of pomp it was on Twitter. A lot of my comments might have seemed a little snarky - and for the most part I don't apologise for that; my BA graduation was at least free of swords and sceptres, and nor did we have to stand for the national anthem (not that I did), though both included a good deal of 'how awesome are we?!?!' speeches (which is to be expected) and continous clapping (which is fine). But I have to say that I felt very little sense of accomplishment with this event, and so thought I'd take a bit of time to reflect on my experience of being on the (properly prestigious) University of Birmingham Playwriting Studies course.

I was accepted without issue on to the UofB playwriting Mphil, but after a stressful and 'you have to jump through hoops but we won't tell you where they are' failed  funding application to the AHRC, it really was touch and go whether I was going to be able to fund my place on. In the end it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up, and the interest I was getting in my writing made it seem like the right time to be doing it, so me and my mum both took out loans so I could afford it. To be honest the lingering debt (works out at about £150 a month for me, which on a freelance/temp wage really does sting) is, I think, the one things that's making the experience a little painful. I'm really really bored of being poor.

On the course you don't really feel like you're a part of the University, you are on a disparate campus, required to be there only 2 days a week, nor do you feel particularly connected to the department. On a logistical side of things you're frequently bombarded with training you're supposed to attend about research, unfortunately the 'Mphil(b) research masters' title means that you can't avoid it, though it is almost entirely completely useless RE the course's actual content.

But I really didn't mind any of that.

The course was structured into two main strands - one was a series of essays and portfolios of short creative work, which you had to pass on, but that didn't count towards any final mark, and the other was the writing and development of a full-length play, and an accompanying 6000 word analysis of the process of writing it. This thesis play is really the main project of the year you spend studying.

What you do get, is a group of 14 or so people, from all over the world (Amsterdam, Sweeden, Chicago, Tamworth) who are all proven, and passionate about writing for theatre. The youngest in my year was 21, the oldest late 50s. There was such a wealth of experience and styles, of different backgrounds and approaches. And they travel every tribulation with you. There was one point after the first draft deadline over Christmas, we all came back looking more than a little shell shocked. I (half) joked about my very real thoughts of 'I totally can't do this, I'll just give up, I can totally give up, it has to be easier to give up than write this bloody thing' and suddenly everyone was talking quite seriously about how they'd felt exactly the same thing, that they'd been on the point of phoning the uni, or had cried on the phone to their partner, or had been working out how much of the January fee payment they'd have to try and get back... But we were also there, still standing. It was wonderful to have human proof that it doesn't just feel so insurmountably impossible for you. It doesn't just feel like fingernails over the blackboard of your mind for you. It doesn't just make you feel like you want to scream, and throw something, and cry, and that every key fall is just dulling your use of the English language into a deeper, more meaningless nonsense.

This is just what it feels like to be a writer.

On this course I also learnt how to do proper redrafts, before what I thought we redrafts, were just tweaks and shuffles. A proper redraft is a 'new document' in word. It's a whole new play, written about the same story.

And the writers. The playwrights, screenwriters and industry professionals who came to speak to us, Dennis Kelly, David Eldridge, Dan Rebellato, Douglas Maxwell,  David Nicholls, David Edgar, radio producers from the BBC, directors from the Birmingham REP. They all came and talked, and answered all of our tremulous questions. We learnt that everyone hates writing for TV, even those who do it. That a good printer is of more use to a writer than a good computer. That writing books is fun, and that adapting them for the screen isn't. That TV and movie writing pays a lot but everyone but Paul Abbott and Russell T Davies only do it so they can afford to write for the stage. That you should never lie down in press photographs. Douglas Maxwell actually brought a file in full of rejection letters, about a hundred of them, and told us about the whole cabinet he has of them at home. Dan Rebellato talked about getting Michael Palin to play a character in his radio play, and how he somehow balances an academic career with one as a playwright (insane idea that it - oh, wait). Dennis Kelly talked about coming into playwriting comparatively later in life, while David Eldridge swore softly about becoming a so-called overnight success. These writers were all quietly kind, answered all of our questions, were realistically encouraging, and without exception, very very funny. Story telling is something that leaks into your conversation too. There was no 'how do you do this' answer that came from their talks - because you can't map creativity for anyone but yourself - but the two things they all emphasised and embodied were resilience and a sense of humour.

I would have liked to have seen more writers who weren't white-male, but I do know that's  (sadly) a real minority of writers.

Then there's Steve Waters. Steve was the course convener, he oversaw it all, and was our constant contact. As well as being a very accomplished and sucessful (quietly political) playwright, Steve is an immensely generous, thoughtful, passionate man. He saw the value in each story, in each style, he encouraged and questioned, rather than criticised. He was firm when he needed to be, and sympathetic when your voice was quavering with the weight of it all. I don't mean this to sound scyophantic, but that course is built or broken on the back of the convener. And we were very lucky that Steve was that.

And then I wrote a play.

Set in the Future. About a group of people playing the largest online game (MMORPG) ever. And their meeting the founder of the online world, and a famous, renegade hacker. Who gives them the option of destorying the world, but you're never sure which one. But instead they tear themselves apart. A play that took in different realities- people playing avatars of different ages, sexes and ethnicities. A play about people who live and die in virtual worlds, and what it is about this one which pushes them out.

It was very, very hard.

And I'm still not sure I got it.

I set myself a massive challenge. But more than anything, the Playwriting masters gave me the undivided time, and the tools with which to tackle it.

If you're interested, you can read my thesis play Being Someone Else here

I think I could have progressed to where I am now in about 5 years of hard, part-time graft. I would have probably stuck at it. I don't tend to let myself fail if I can avoid it. But what the masters gave me was a fast-track. Of course I have everything still to learn, and everything left to lose,in my pursuit of a writing career. But that year escalated my learning, built me a wider support network, and more than anything showed me that to write, is to hurt, and to write, is to  laugh and carry on regardless.

To return to my opening project - of wanting to examine why I don't feel as though I have achieved much - I think it's because the course wasn't meant to do that, it isn't on the course you achieve, but (I suppose like in all university learning)  your are given the tools with which to do so. But the end of this particular course also marks the point at which you are - more than before - on your own again. Which is perhaps why it feels a little sad, which is perhaps why I feel a little bereft. And perhaps why I was also itching to get out of there, why I found it a tad irrelevant, because I want to get started, I want to be heard, I want to be staged...

And sooner than all that, I must to bed, as in 4 hours I'm leaving for Paris!

Bonne Nuit, and watch this space.

xx

2009-07-07T02:56:00.008+01:00

Speak Up

On Saturday over 2,000 people came to stand up against a new dirty coal power station on the Kingsnorth site in Kent. A mix of people of all ages, families with babies, old ladies, teenagers, university students all came together to form the mili-band - a direct call to Ed Miliband to hear our collective political will. Back at the fete afterwards we heard a few speakers and a couple of musicians (see the end of this post for a video of Sam Duckworth from Get Cape Wear Cape Fly [apologies for poor quality of the beginning of the video]). I was glad to see there was a decent balance of female-male speakers. And I was also really moved by a speaker from Bangladesh.

Shorbanu Khutun, a survivor of Cyclone Aila from Gabura in Bangladesh, had been brought over by Oxfam especially to speak (through a translator) at the event. She barely made it to the middle of her speech before bursting into tears, but she stood on the small stage, her head high - as if it was all she could do to stand up - and talked. She told us about the flooding, the cyclone that destroyed her land, the loss of all of her possessions and clothes, the subsequent land grab, and how her husband had to go into the jungle to make their living. How he was killed there. She spoke directly about our actions - how it was the developed west that had wrought these changes on her life and about our responsibility - how we are ending people's lives.

"It used to be cold in the winter but it is not anymore. All year it is hot, too hot. The levels of the rivers are always rising and previously we used to grow vegetables and rice, but because of the salination in the water, nothing will grow anymore."

She used her sari to dry her eyes and stood tall again as she carried on talking, only her voice wavered as she told us that she is the proof that climate change kills, and that it is our responsibility to stand up, to speak out. It was powerful stuff.

Speak Out

And then on the journey home, as two people were wheeled out of the train station, unconscious with heatstroke, to a nearby ambulance. I picked up a magazine to pass my journey home, the New Scientist, in which this article caught my eye: "Sea level rise: It's worse than we thought"

"In its 2007 report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast a sea level rise of between 19 and 59 centimetres by 2100"

Apparently this figure is now thought to be a gross underestimate, "even before it was released, the report was outdated. Researchers now know far more"

Combine sea ice melt, with thermal expansion and the gases released from glacial melt, and you get between a 50cm and 2m rise in sea level. What does that get you? Well it knocks out most of Lincolnshire, much of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, and a good amount of London when the storm-surge protection is no longer viable.

"most conservative estimates are now higher than the IPCC's highest estimate. [The scientific] community is comfortable expecting at least a metre by the end of this century [...] about 60 million people live within 1 metre of mean sea level, a number expected to grow to about 130 million by 2100."

We are coming up to one of the turning points in the tale that is humanity – in Copenhagen this December governments from all across the world will come together to work out a global deal on climate change. It is recognised that the key to keeping us from 'catastrophic climate change' is the 2°C mark. What does that mean in terms of cutting emissions?

"To obtain a 50% chance of preventing more than 2°C of warming requires [an] 87% cut in global emissions per person. If carbon emissions are to be distributed equally [...] The UK's emissions per capita would need to fall by 91%" (source)

The UK is currently aiming for 60% cuts , when we need 91% cuts by 2050 for a 50/50 chance of securing the survival of the human race.

A 50/50 chance.

Would you get onto a plane with those odds?

But what action can we take? I mean you recycle, right? You turn off lights, and unplug your phone chargers - but you're just one person, what can one person do?

Take action

Speak up. Shout out. Government exists, primarily, to stay in government. They will only ever be as strong as the will of the people. Attend marches, make yourself heard, agitate if it's in you – scale power stations and stop trains – and if you're not up to that – demonstrate. Hold banners, write letters, attend marches, make contact with mainstream organisations like Oxfam, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. They have emails you can send, pledges you can make, all of which will get your political will known.

Act out. Grassroots action is change from the other direction. If the government won't build you an eco-town, make your town as environmentally friendly as you can. Organise better recycling and swap meets, work on your councillors and mayors until they provide bicycle lanes, get employers to provide showers and facilities to sort yourself out after a bike to work in the rain, reclaim land for allotments. There's so much you can change with a bottom up approach.

Live right. We do not live sustainable lives. We simply don't. Even if we were to get all of our power from a combination of renewable (on and offshore wind, tide, hot rocks, solar power fields taking up a 1/3 of Britain) and nuclear power stations combined, we would be nowhere near supplying all of our transport, power and consumable needs. If you want to see the science/maths behind that I urge you to watch this video by Dave Mackay, speaking at Warwick University.

What we need is a complete change in the way we live and structure our lives. We cannot afford to continue eating meat in the way we do, building and discarding goods and clothing the way we do, travelling and consuming power in the way to which we've become accustomed. Yes we need massive changes, but they start with little ones. You could eat meat only a couple of times a week, you could buy fruit and veg off the market, you could give your clothes to charity shops, and buy good quality clothing, less often. You could take the train, or the bus, or bike. You could not fly. You could buy solar chargers for your gadgets, or install photo-voltaic panels on your roof. You could cultivate a veg patch. These are not impossible things. These are, in fact, things that between us, me and my mum are doing. We do a lot of bad things too. But it's something, it's a beginning.

We have to make ourselves heard, by the government, by Ed Miliband, in the run up to Copenhagen this December. We can't wait; the decisions and connections are made in advance of these summits. Time is really, truly, running out. For people like Shorbanu's husband, it already has.

Our generation is bearing the last and greatest of this burden, we change, or we die. Take action.

2009-07-07T02:29:00.008+01:00

Update.

And I'm back. In Lincolnshire that is. After a very long, very full, and very life-changing week. I went into the theoretical detail of Shift Happens in my previous post, so I shan't say anything I've already said. But I will say it was the best two days of my life. I hope you don't think that's sad. It was just such a pleasure to be able to combine my love of the theatrical and digital worlds in one intense, intellectually engaged, passionate place. I met some amazing people, and since then have had some amazing opportunities/things happen to me which I can't really talk about publicly yet, but really have made me a very excited, happy person. I'm so very grateful to Marcus at Pilot Theatre for finding me on Twitter, and for inviting me along, and I'm also really grateful to everyone else who took part, and who connected with me on those two days, whether we agreed or not, that what I loved, the chance to connect.

What else happened to me this week? Well I saw The Age of Stupid at the Drill Hall, which although not strictly brilliant in terms of a credible over-arching narrative, it sure did make the case that needs to be made RE climate change. It felt like a film that could (and should) be shown in schools and universities across the country.

Then I wrote a blog post that got more traffic than the rest of my previous 78 posts combined. Which is amazing, and brilliant, and I'm really grateful that people want to engage with my ideas.

On Friday I got an iPhone. Which is wonderful. And I love it. I'm particularly enjoying being able to do readings of some of my shorter pieces of writing, which you can listen to, subscribe to, or download via iTunes, here.

I also heard that my article on women in tech (The Digital Ceiling) is going to be published in issue 8 of Subtext.

And then on Saturday I went to the Mili-band protest. Which is a whole other blog subject entirely. So I did one. See the next post for further details...

2009-07-03T02:00:00.013+01:00

'Bums on Seats'

"PR folk are always asking how do you measure the value of social media? I'm glad I don't have to rate every conversation I have." @Documentally

Over the past few weeks I have been to two ACE Get AmbITions, and the Shift Happens conference regarding the use of digital media in the arts. Get AmbITion I've already blogged about, and I did say that I was going to wait until this Sunday to do anything about Shift Happens, but I really want to address something that's come up, several times, at all of the aforementioned conferences, and I want to talk about it now. Here it is:

'Bums on seats'

Several times that phrase has come up, and even oftener has the general sentiment been expressed:

'This is all very nice, very modern. But how does this translate into our making money, how can this be measured?'

Let me just add a brief caveat before I get into this. I am not just a consumer of art. I am not longing after some ideal world where the arts get the equivalent of the defence budget (or at least the money that's supposed to be going to renew Trident), nor do I think 'real' art comes out of people living off a pittance in some squat in whatever part of London is next going to become fabulously cool and bohemian. I understand the material realities of theatre-making. Granted I'm young, but I have worked in two theatres (Terry O'Toole and Loughborough Town Hall Theatre) as well as working for just over a year in a mid-scale company (Foursight Theatre), and (currently) freelancing for another (Theatre Writing Partnership). I also write for theatre, and through that have been involved with Nottingham Playhouse, the Royal Court, and smaller non RFO companies like Box of Tricks and Scary Little Girls. I am telling you all this because I want you to take me seriously. I may be young, may be idealistic, but I do understand the intricacies of funding agreements, I have seen boards poring over budgets, I understand how hard it is, and how much has to be justified, how RFOs have to prove themselves in 'deliverables', I also understand that ACE have to have something to measure, otherwise how do they know who do give money to? I understand all of this. I just don't think that is how things have to be in every inch of our art.

A theatre company operating now, with no involvement in social media, is like a painter having no involvement with the colour blue.

'But how does this translate to bums on seats'

This question was asked at the Shift Happens conference, during a Q&A after the Hoi Polloi video diary/twitter presentation. It was asked how all of the social media involvement 'translated to bums on seats'. I was one of the people who responded to the question. However I am a little concerned that I put my point a little awkwardly, I was sitting in the circle, and so had to bark my answer down, I'm worried that I may have sounded harsh. If I sounded exasperated, it's because I was, but not at the questioner, rather at the imperative to measure that casts its shadow over the whole discussion of social media. So I want to try and put my ideas across to you.

This is how I see it: I know that you need money to grow art. It's like manure, it works ok without, but much quicker and shinier with it. But this does not mean that everything in art should be measured against the money it cultivates.

"Marketing people are talking about the wrong bit, the product, you should be talking about the process - make it accessible" DK @mediasnackers at Shift Happens

The value of social media can and should not be measured against old, analogue-world ideas of promotion and product. Speaker after speaker told us this.

"Digital distribution has changed everything. It's no longer about pushing product. The consumer will pull what they want" Charles Cecil at Shift Happens

The idea of 'bums on seats' is no longer relevant, in the context of a digital universe (and make no mistake, your future audience is certainly living in one) you cannot sell, you cannot push. Old ideas of marketing just wont wash. If you are worried about getting people to your performances or exhibitions, then you should not be shying away from social media, you should be jumping in feet first, wading around, making a splash, because the arts don't just need to be involved in the digital world, they need to be at the roots of it, prodding, seeing where it goes, asking where it might take us. What is the value of being involved in digital worlds? Because right now it is the only thing that will keep us alive, it is the only thing that will keep us relevant. What the online-conversation dramatises is the connection between art and its audience. One which, if you look at our typical audiences, is beginning to be lost.

"Old ideas of narrative are Newtonian, the internet is reality according to Einstein" @billt

People exist now as many different aspects, in many different contexts, as people are finding new ways to love, laugh, lose and cry, each moment is simultaneously created, destroyed, viewed through a lens. If you don't understand these new ways of being, how can you make art? If you dismiss a generation's way(s) of being (including the worst of it, Youtube comments, trolls, the proliferation of paedophilic material, as well as the hardest to fathom, WOW and 4chan) how dare you tell people that you have anything worth saying? How dare you?

I believe art should speak to us of ourselves. I believe that we should try and learn about every moment, every second, I believe we should talk about the future, in order to look at now. I also believe that the digital world is an almost entirely untapped source of story. Where better to explore the relationship between avatar and RL, than on a stage, framed, where people play characters? Where better to ask how it is that groups of people consent to pretend that the on-screen, framed [bracketed, if we're getting phenomenological] world they are looking at is somewhere else, an alternate reality, with alternate concerns, aims, multi-string narratives, and people represented by avatars than where it is already happening? Where better to tilt-shift the digital world so that we can see it anew, distanced, objectively emotive, questioning?

"Using an open source model of work reduces the cost of collaboration and provides you with a skillset limited only by your network" Alex Fleetwood @ammonite at Shift Happens

You might argue that I'm being very airy, very conceptual, perhaps even a little conversational? Well here's what else social media can get you: more resources than you could ever dream of. What do we do when we can no longer 'push' – can no longer try and convince people that the story we're telling them is what they want to hear? Well how about we listen to them, we let them in on the process, tell them that they're worth listening to, engaging with. And how about we look at the world–changing concept of open source working- the WIKI, the dev environment.

"Why do people need your walls and stage when they've got Youtube? They're you're competitors" DK @mediasnackers at Shift Happens

We are fighting for the attention, now, of a generation who have become used to being their own protagonist, accessing their own world, controlling their own characters. If you open your process up, if you engage with people, if you tell their stories, ask them questions, offer them involvement, ownership, they will want to see the work you make. You will have made participants, not an audience. If you can make them laugh, if you can make them wonder, if you can connect to them in a human way, in conversation – you will not just have a bum on a seat, you will have a heart too. And hearts come back.

Don't just join in now, look to the future. Is open-source, wiki developed work the next step in devising? How does theatre writing exist in a wiki-world? Is streaming a new testing-ground for new work? What is the potential for using these tools to find new talent, to help people, to reach out the disenfranchised and disaffected? How can the digital world work on stage? Is the digital world a stage?

Social media is a conversation, not a piece of equipment. This is a call to arms, for democratisation, for anarchy, consensus. Be exited, embrace your fear, jump in. There's almost always a back button. If you are exciting, if you are relevant, if you engage, your social networks will not be a task, your participants will create them for you.

"[The world of ideas is changing] the news is becoming mutual, Obama's politics was mutual- not driven by spin, broadcast control and brand [...] It's all about the pull [...] Think pirates. Think mavericks, think renegades [They will re-form our world, they can tell us what the future might look like] It's critical that artists are engaged with the digital world, not for marketing, but to ask difficult, big questions of it" Charles Leadbeater @wethink at Shift Happens [brackets = paraphrasing from my twitter feed]

So find the new stories, ask the big questions. We're heading to a new universe of narrative and being, someone needs to throw ideas around, ask big questions, to "make a mess so we know where we are", to ask who we are, who we might become. Let's keep art vital.

Further reading: I have also written a short, all-in introduction for tweeting for artists and arts organisations. Twitter is a very easy, cheap way to get started. You can download my document here. Share and share alike :)

2009-07-02T19:10:00.016+01:00

Podtastic

After talking to @Documentally, and seeing the subtitling talk at Shift Happens (more on that in the next post), I have been thinking about doing some podcasts of my writing. As well as making it more accessible to visually impaired people, and a lot easier for people who are dyslexic (or just plain like people reading to them) it will give a window, hopefully, into how my writing sounds in my head. I think it's always interesting to hear the author read their own work, and it helps inform future reading too. It would be lovely to hear what you think about them, and if you think it's a nice/useful idea or not. I don't think I'll record all of my posts, but probably the creative pieces, and maybe the odd editorial style piece. Comment and let me know what you think would be useful!

Also, as well as being able to listen to the tracks here, I will eventually sort out popping them on iTunes, and you should also be able to subscribe to posts with audio in via rss to see the audio directly, I think... I'm working on it!

Intro

Sand

Poppies

That Place

You should be able to download the actual files by viewing this page in RSS, I think, but let me know if it's not working - if it isn't then I'll just hyperlink the titles.

And finally, if you want to see these pieces in good old black and white, see this post.

Thanks for reading/listening.

Hx

2009-06-28T21:09:00.004+01:00

Shift.

Just a quick post before the beginning of a very hectic but exciting week, as it's most likely I wont have a second to blog until at least Sunday. This is what I'm going to be getting up to:

Monday and Tuesday I will be attending/working at Shift Happens 2.0, Pilot Theatre's conference about digital media in the arts. I'll be there as a sort of Twitter 'specialist', as well as in my capacity as a burgeoning PhD student, soaking up as much as I can in the run up to the beginning of my Theatre and Technology research. The event looks extremely exciting, particularly looking forward to hearing more from Hide and Seek, the live streaming of Catcher In Their Eye, and the New playgrounds... Places and spaces, real and virtual panel. You can follow the conference with the hashtags #shifthappens and  #shift2 I think.

Wednesday will be spent sightseeing in York (I haven't been there since I was very young, Jorvik Viking Centre, anyone?) and then coming back to Lincoln in time for a showing of The Age of Stupid at the Drill Hall. I may also buy a big hat. I quite want a bit hat.

Thursday will be my first dedicated day working on the online communication strategy for TWP, and will be the day I set out all of my plans, hopefully informed by the Shift conference

Friday I am temping for some money to cover my activities on...

Saturday! 4 hours on 5 trains leaving at 5am to go to Greenpeace's Mili-band, which is aiming to "bring together over a thousand people from across the country to create a human band around Kingsnorth power station to show our opposition to new dirty coal plants." There's the protest itself, as well as a fete, and a chance to meet up with all the green folk I've been following on Twitter, which should be good. This is my first attempt at following through on my previous decision to start actively demonstrating, rather than passively participating in advocating the political and social change that I believe in. It should hopefully be a nice gentle introduction before Climate Camp at the end of August. If I buy a big hat, I will try wearing it here.

And then Sunday, I may be visiting my brother in Leeds, or I may be readying myself for a full week of 8.30-5 temping with Interserve (for those who follow me on Twitter, it's the place of #thewoodlouse) which is so dull that they actually advise you to bring a book. Might actually afford me a decent chance to get some writing done I suppose.

So yes, that is my week, all of which is apparently going to take place on the hottest week in the UK for a very long time. I shall try and catch up with everything and blog about Shift, and the Mili-band thing in a weeks time. In the meantime, you can always follow me on Twitter. I have also just sorted myself a Tumblr on which you will find links and other things of interest from the internets, and a Flickr account, on which I've put a few of my nicer photos, and on which I shall definitely put up anything decent that I take over the next week or so.

Thanks for reading,

Han xx

2009-06-28T17:54:00.007+01:00

Here, where the land meets the sky, here. Where the landscape leans back and the world opens up, past where the cliff drops away. Stumbling and kicking stones away down the path that leads to the sea. The languid beauty of a still day, the water whispering what it sometimes roars. We came from there. Staggering, gasping, dying for air, thrust out of the warm, wet place where we were not one thing, or another, but everywhere.

I haven't felt a loss like this before.

I realise I've stopped. That my pause has coincided with a lull in the air, his face swims in front of me, wrought out of the hot vapour that hangs in the air and the tears don't want to let go of my cheek, they hang on for as long as they can until too heavy, dully they fall to the sand.

It doesn't feel wrong - it feels like a sharp pain, like vinegar and lemon, like salt water, like a headache and like a memory I'd forgotten. But it doesn't feel wrong, this loss. It feels like tears to the sea.

I stagger, though I don't move. The wind stirs, and I walk on. It is all I can do. Move. Let the sea air wipe the salt water from my face, I breathe in.

It's right that I feel this, and it will fade. But this is my offering to him - my tears - I'm returning like him, to the sea.

2009-06-25T22:25:00.018+01:00

This is not me.
I am not an image.
This is not me.
I stand for nothing but myself.
This is not me.
But I am angry.
I am a person
I was strong.

And if while I am on the phone to another a bullet tears into my chest, piercing my breast, splintering the bone of my ribcage as it passes into my lungs and into the flesh of my back,

And I fall back,

I will die.

For simply being somewhere.
The blood will run from my eyes.
You can not repress that.
As it engulfs me.
People will watch it
again and again
again and again.

But that was not me,
that body, those surprised, those hurt eyes, dying.
It is not me you are watching, feeling as though you are losing someone.

My life was more than its last five minutes.
You are wrong if you think you are stronger than me.
I was just there.
I am not one thing.
I am not you in another situation.
I -

2009-06-19T22:31:00.005+01:00

My First Conference Tag! Wheee!

Digital Media and the Arts

So, an editorial-style blog and couple of creative pieces later I think there's a 'what I am up to' blog due. Short answer: lots. But if you follow me on Twitter, or speak to me occasionally you probably already know that – so here's a long-answer-picture of everything that's been going on over the past few weeks.

Today I was at a combination of the Arts Council England (ACE) AmbITion and my first meeting/contract signing with Theatre Writing Partnership. I'll talk a little more about the content of the former in a bit- firstly: 'contract signing?' I hear you cry! 'what is this craziness?'. Aha, well I can now officially say that I have been contracted by TWP as a freelance Online Communication Officer, the idea being that over the summer I work with them on a freelance basis, helping them spread their digital roots. This will be in conjunction with a website overhaul being done elsewhere, building up to a big, exciting, social media theatre writing experiment around October time. TWP are (for the uninitiated) an East Midlands based new theatre writing initiative – I came across them in my first year of uni through the Momentum Festival – it was with TWP that I wrote my first ever piece of theatre, I made many friends (Lucy, Alex, MorpheanRamble, Robin, Phil, Sabrina) through the festival and it set me off on my current trajectory as an aspiring playwright. TWP are a brilliant resource for theatre writing in an area in which there are very few (in comparison to London) opportunities to have work read and developed. My work with them will consist of getting an online presence together, creating an online space for all of TWPs past writers, workshop leaders and other participants to reconnect and catch up, really build a grassroots-style support and opportunities network for them, get a blogroll together etc., as well as looking at how new and social media can work for a new writing theatre company. Very exciting stuff! So today I met up with Bianca from TWP, sorted all the contractual things, and got started, watch this space!

This morning (as anyone who follows me will know) I was at the ACE AmbITion day. A morning of speakers followed by an afternoon of workshops (we skipped the afternoon of how-to's). I missed the introduction due to a combination of a late train and having a map to the wrong Broadway (one's a street, one's a cinema >_<) and instead went straight into one of two speakers. The first up was Alex Fleetwood (@ammonite). Alex was from Hide and Seek, they don't call themselves an arts company per se, but what they're doing is some very exciting and challenging stuff. Their main project is one of play – the idea being that play is going to be central to culture in the 21^st Century, it took in all kinds of ideas on 'play' from video games to childhood games to immersive theatre in the style of Punchdrunk, Forced Entertainment et al. The most valuable (IMO) thing that I took away from the talk however, was the model of involvement that it used. It basically took on the Wiki ethic and put it in a performative/artistic context. Examples of their work include Wiki developed city-wide games of hide-and-seek and spy narratives, and one particular piece which was a game for two- one of whom was in a tomb-raider style puzzle house, and the other who controlled and interacted from a rich online environment. These pieces were all self generating. The framework was there, but the content was user generated, interractive and built in the 'sandpit' of what essentially was a dev community. The games were beta tested, altered, shared and shared alike. This is a step on from ideas of devising theatre, there is no final text, there may be words spoken, but it is the participant's play. It raised fascinating questions about authorship, of how people accept rule-sets, of created and real identity, basically bloody gold dust in terms of my theatre and tech PhD, and otherwise essential ideas for the future of performance and art.

However I was a little disappointed with the rest of the event, the next speech was more than a little lacklustre, less about potential for new work, and more about the process of some pretty standard old work. The Q&A at the end brought up two questions which stick in my mind. Overall the comments consisted of bemused excitement, people seemed to repeat the fact that it was all so over their heads so complicated etc, they could see the potential but not what it meant for them – but I suppose that's what the second half of the day was about- getting people to jump in and see that the digital world is not scary. But it was a little depressing - the resistance to these ideas- they seemed to say 'yes but you're young, you know about these things, I don't'. Um.... Well learn then! Dive in! Learn that it's OK to not know, that it's where everyone starts. I did fine art and English lit A levels, my respective degrees are in Drama and Playwriting, when I went to school the most advanced piece of kit we had was a little mushroom shaped thing on wheels which you could program to travel a variety of distances, left or right (I don't know what that was supposed to teach us). My point is that everything that I know about the tech world is what I've taught myself, and learnt from friends, peers, family. Do some people decide that they have finished learning? That they know enough? I know so little about so many things, I'm hungry for it, for understanding, for information. This rant relates onwards, don't worry, to two specific questions that came up. The first one I'll mention was after Alex Fleetwood's talk on Hide & Seek, from a gentlemen near the front of the room, I didn't catch where he was from. I'm paraphrasing, but he basically asked:

"But how do we get these 13 year old kids away from spending 10 hours a day on World of Warcraft and on to more important, social things?"

I'm being very, very restrained by not breaking into a full on rant here, because I don't think it would be terribly constructive, let me just outline all the things that are wrong with that question.

The assumption that WOW is antisocial
The assumption that what the questioner calls 'art' is worthier than a game
The assumption that games and art cannot be the same thing
The assumption that time spent on WOW is wasted
The assumption that it is our job to rival the 'bad influence' of games.

We should be learning from the model of MMORPG games – they enthral people because they put them at the centre of a story, they make the player an originator. People connect online, just because the connection doesn't fit hitherto subscribed to social norms, doesn't mean the connection is any less. Often, in terms of intellectual engagement, it can make it is somehow more. I'm not saying that all theatre should be like a game- but in our world there are new questions arising from new politics of identity and communication. Gaming communities are vibrant, strong, and active things, it's so ignorant to assume that your way of living your life is somehow right, and another wrong, rather looking at the differences between the two, trying to understand. Why might someone spend so much time online? What does the VR give them that RL doesn't? Is it control? Is it the power of the protagonist? Is it the idea of playing as another? Is it relaxing? Is it exciting? Is it escapism? Ask those questions, don't ask how we can save them from themselves. Ask how they can save us from our old selves.

Alex Fleetwood was brilliant in response, he emphasised that we shouldn't see WOW and other games as 'bogey men' or enemies to real life. He put it much gentler than I have, but he was clear, and gave what I think was an admirable response.

The other question I'll talk (briefly) about was asked by someone from Lincoln's Drill Hall venue – basically the point put forward was that they couldn't afford the staff hours or to pay someone external to run the kind of web 2.0 social network that was being talked of. Which is a reason I've often heard mooted- and it's understandable, but if you ask me, it's not the answer that's the problem – it's the question. The kind of sandbox style beta testing artistic environment that AF talked about is not one that you can engineer- it is only one for which you can provide the framework. It is not an organisation's job to nail down every corner of a mapped social network – it should be theirs to enthuse an audience or target group to the point at which they author it, and in which the organisation is merely a participant. This means that the organisation hasn't spent masses of budget and time on something that might not work, it means they have something which is and continues to be self-generating and relevant. The point of social networking in the arts is to pull down the pedestal on which art has been placed- to stop saying so definitely when art stops and audience begins, to play with collective creation, to play with narrative, to play with identity. These things are changing in modern society, there are new ways of loving, laughing, and losing being invented everyday, if we don't investigate them, if we don't tell these new stories, then we fail as artists.

We need people to stop being afraid of these new ways of communicating, otherwise art - which I consider as best-fitted to challenging society - will become defunct, another method of escapism, a tool of suppression rather than revolution. Better put than I ever will:

"Theatre is a weapon. A very efficient weapon […] for this reason the ruling classes try to take hold of theatre and utilise it as a tool for domination […] but the theatre can also be a weapon of the liberation. For that, it is necessary to change appropriate theatrical forms. Change is imperative." (p. ix, Boal, Augusto. Theatre of the Oppressed (New Edition). London: Pluto Press, 2000.)

What else am I up to? Many things, I think it's best if I summarise more quickly as this appears to have become a bit of a behemoth. I'm writing an article for Subtext Magazine on women in tech. I'm going to be in York at the Shift Happens arts and digital technology conference at the end of this month, talking to people about Twitter. I've also written an arts organisation intro to Twitter for it, which so far seems to be getting some good responses. I finished and sent off my treatment for the 15 minute play Box of Tricks have commissioned me to work on. I'm meeting up with some Twitter friends for some drinks (as well as some thoughts on the future of digital media, but mostly drinks) I'm off to Leeds and Birmingham this month, and in mid July - Paris! I have also decided to save up enough money to attend the weekend of Climate Camp in August.

Plus I'm trying to squeeze in some temp work so I can afford all of the above!

Phew!

I'm not going to pretend I don't love this :-)

Han xx

2009-06-12T22:19:00.010+01:00

Three short pieces on Longing.
(An exercise in description)

I

There are days I long for a lungful of cool, sea air. The sharp jolt of salt as you breathe in and wind that whips your hair in and out of your eyes. Tucking strays behind your ears and just about resisting the urge to run along the flat sand with your arms outstretched pretending that just for a hard, breathless minute, that’s all there is. I breathe in, close my eyes and screw my feet into the sand and realise, suddenly, that I’m waiting for a hand to take mine. Much bigger it is, and when I open my eyes I’ll look up, and the smile, the smile will fall down like a waterfall, like a furled banner. The head - small in the same way the hand is big. A laugh, loud, deep, carried away by the wind like the seaweed is. Far away. Like everything, except the hand - warm, and the air - cool, thick with salt.

There are days when I long for that.

II

I turned past the corner. The corner of the road. I turned past the corner of the road where I run. I turned past the corner, where they’ve just resurfaced, where the big, thick grit makes you feel unstable, I turned into the lane, and I stopped. They’d gone. There were none of them. For days, days I’d run. I’d run and the first day I ran I turned this corner where the grit stings your knees and I stopped. They were so red. And there were hundreds of them. So red that I forgot to breathe in, so red that I felt like I was squinting. The kind of red you can’t even imagine. And there were hundreds of them, like a carpet, but not, so much less mundane, like a shout, like someone shouting out and it being stolen by the wind, distorted - but brighter than that - like a ray of sun seen from below the surface of a river, warming,  but you can’t feel the heat. They look fragile, poppies, moving in the wind, but every day there were more, they bent low, but never broke. I took a break. Two days and I didn’t go out. Today I turned into the lane and stopped. Nothing but a few dead heads. Gross. Black. A darkness to them, something almost sick. The field was green. It felt grey. I started to run again, the grit bouncing at my feet.

They were gone.

III

I touch my neck. I rest my thumb at my throat and my hand along my collar bone. It just fits. My skin feels warm, slightly rough, I can feel blemishes and my fingers brush the fabric of my vest top. I trace the collar bone towards my throat, to the point at which I can feel it end, feel the beginning of the left. If I concentrate, hold my breath, I can feel my heart beating, as though from a long way off. I miss the smell, you know? Not one person in particular, but I miss the smell – of another. I miss that place. That place where if you lie next to someone when they lay out their arm you can put your head right in the space between their shoulder and their neck. It just fits. And if you listen hard, if you hold your breath, you can hear their heart beat against their chest and you can breathe in. Breathe in that combination of hair and sweat and washing powder and hot breath and a splash of water and distant shampoo, deodorant,  laughter, like a cat’s tongue, and pepper, and sticky summer air. You breathe it in. Hold it. I don’t miss anyone, not anyone in particular, but that bit- that bit between someone’s head and neck, and the smell, the smell of another, their heart beating in their chest.

I miss it.

2009-06-08T22:37:00.012+01:00

Jane

Jane was a Princess. But don’t let that put you off. She was a person as well, that was the problem. Jane was a Princess, and a person. Jane. You’re finding it hard to picture her aren’t you? It’s the name. It’s not a very princess-y name. Jane thinks it’s because it rhymes with ‘plain’. There are lots of famous ‘Jane’s - princesses too - but they never seem to do as well as, say, the ‘Elizabeth’s or ‘Victoria’s. The ‘Jane’s are more often a role in someone else’s story.

Nevertheless this Princess is a Jane. And this story is about her.

Jane is not plain. She’s not particularly beautiful either. Do you really need to know how she looks? Fine, ok, you can’t see her, you want to picture her (what you really want to do is to pretend to be her, or want to fuck her, but you’re the boss, let’s get it over with).

The politest thing you could say about Jane is that she’s striking, interesting. Not ugly, but her features are arranged in a slightly asymmetric fashion, her teeth aren’t perfectly straight (dentistry, as a profession, is hundreds of years away) but nor are they horribly wonky. Her hair is blonde, but not flaxen, more sort of- greasy mouse brown. She’s not fat, not by any stretch, but she is of a strong build, the kind that suited her brothers more than her. She has a lot of moles, brown eyes, and squints a little when she reads. Her clothes are a simple, heavily darned trousers and shirt. On closer inspection you might realise that these clothes, whilst home made, are sewn from exquisite materials. Well if they thought she was going to wait around in a draughty tower in nothing but silk gowns they had thought wrong.

And there was someone fighting the dragon again. At first it had been quite exciting. Perhaps she should say ‘frightening’, but the truth it that she was never in danger. So bugger it, exciting was right. But after the 20th or 21st death, it all got a bit dull. She wished she could say she’d lost count, but there was bugger all else to count in the Tower. She should probably say bugger less. Or think it less, whatever. Maybe one of the reasons her father sent her here was because of the swearing? But what else could you expect with 6 brothers and a mother dead?

He’d lost his sword now, death usually followed pretty quickly after they lost their sword. She wasn’t sure why, it’s not like the sword was ever much use in the first place. They were fighting a dragon for fu – for goodness sake.

This one would make it 219.

After a while, you began to notice patterns, different types of heroes, who died in different ways. This one was a Tactician. At least he thought he was; he was as much a tactician you can be after the point at which you think attacking a dragon is a good idea. Tacticians are cowards. In certain situations a coward is not a bad thing to be. Fear and timidity in the face of a 29ft high fire-breathing dragon, for example, should be called sensible, not cowardly. He had had a plan. They always had the same plan; a decoy. Goats, ducks, horses, that kind of thing. The idea being that while the dragon was catching and devouring said decoy, they could sneak by unnoticed, and voila: one rescued Princess. What they actually did was provide an appetiser for the main dish.

He’d lost his shield now.

Occasionally, once every few months or so, a hero would make it to the Tower. It was always interesting when that happened. Tower-reachers were usually either Brutes or Scholars. The last one to get to the Tower was a Scholar. Scholars did research. He’d even done his reading on the Tower. He didn’t bother looking around the back (disguised by thick bushes you could leap behind for convenient dragon cover and promptly fall to a cliff-y death). Nor did he bother looking for a secret passage way, tunnel, or concealed door. Instead he had launched a very sharp grappler-thing towards the single window, and then when it failed to find a purchase on the specially greased shale, he’d been knocked out by a tile, and impaled on his own grappler--thing.

In the early thirties, she’d tried to help, shouted advice. Around 50 or so, she’s just tried to have a conversation – asked about the wider world. But they never listened, just shouted the usual “fear not fair maiden”.

She sometimes wondered if the Tower thing was less about protecting her, and more about making her willing to marry any bloody thing that she could have a conversation with.

“Bloody”.

She had books. They'd left her with books, other basic supplies, that was what the rest of the Tower was filled with. And she had a garderobe that opened onto the sea. She’d first tried to make a rope out of her sheets and silk dresses, tied it to a candle bracket, and thrown it out the hole. She hadn’t fitted through. It was her stupid wide shoulders. The books weren’t worth looking at. They went on about etiquette, coquetry, cooking, birthing, that sort of thing. The birthing illustrations were of morbid interest until the first disembowelling happened. After that they lost their novelty.

A massive fireball singed the trees.

She didn’t not want a husband. It was what you did wasn’t it? What were her other options? She didn’t see why it was necessary to feed her whatever herb it was that had knocked her out long enough to bring her up here and imprison her. She could be here forever, it didn’t look like man versus dragon was that undecided a conflict... No. Jane couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being taught a lesson. That she was supposed to be learning how be a Princess, a Prize. Not a person.

That one nearly had him.

The books were shells now. Using her sewing scissors Jane had cut out the words from the books individually; she stored them alphabetically, and wrote stories (when it wasn’t windy). There were men, eventually, but mostly they were about the wind rushing through her heroine’s mousey hair, speeding, galloping, riding astride a big brown horse, feeling its muscles bunch and shiver as it carried her... anywhere really, it was the moving bit that was important.

Suddenly a stone rattled by her foot. She looked down. Then up. Bloody hell, was the ceiling falling now? Another stone, it had come from outside. A second, and then she moved swiftly to the window. The dragon was down, and the Tactician had a sling shot. He was waving at her. She waved stupidly before she realised he was waving at her to get back, she dazedly did so, and after a few seconds an arrow zipped in, it shot around and embedded itself into the rafters. The barbed end caught, and held. He had a bow! She ran forward, and already he was climbing up the Tower. She panicked. What should she do? Put on a dress? None left. Tidy up? No time. The dragon was out cold! She was running around like an idiot! And then, there he was, head above the sill, brown messy hair, and a lopsided grin across his face. He was clean shaven, and had one of those chins shaped like a bum.

“Hallo there, fancy helping me up?”

It sounded like he‟d been practising it. Jane stood still.

“Hallo?”

Another pause.

“I say, are you deaf?”

She walked forward a little. She stopped

“What‟s your name?” She said.
“David.”

She looked.

“Look, do you mind giving me a bit of help?”
“I think you‟re supposed to do it yourself”

Confusion flickered across his face.

“What?”

His grin was more of a rictus now.

“I think it’s in the rules, if you want to win, you have to do it yourself”
“Look here,” she could see him shaking slightly from the effort of holding on, “there’s no way a chap could climb all the way up here on a rope, and then jus swing himself over. There’s just not the upper body strength”
“No. No, I suppose not.”

Another gust of wind. The hero swung.

“Bloody hell!”
“I don‟t think you‟re supposed to swear in front of a lady.”
“The tiles are edged! They’re wearing away the rope!”
“Oh. Really?”

She hadn’t spotted that.

“I expect you only have a certain amount of time, with a rope. A ladder really would have been best”
“But-”
“But then how are you supposed to transport a 30ft ladder? Yes, I rather see your point”

She was pleased with the ‘rather’.

“Help me up!”
“But you see I can’t –"
“It’s worn half through!”

Another gust of wind. This time he whimpered.

“You’ve gone mad.”
“I might have done, yes.”
“There‟s only a few threads left!”
“Yes but you see if I help you up, you'll have cheated, and then-“
“Just bloody well help me up will you, you stupid bit----“

A rushing sound.

Splat.

Jane moved to the window. She’d never seen a splat before. It was quite-

There was a whinny further off. A chestnut horse tied to a tree in the distance had seen that the dragon was stirring, beginning to wake up. So, a person had about a minute, all in all, with a rope that looked to be about an inch think, but that was twine.

Hers was made of finest silk.

THE END

(Or is it?)

(Yes.)

2009-05-31T20:38:00.007+01:00

Tipping point.

Image by facemepls via flikr

"The North Sea flood of 1953 and the associated storm combined to create a major natural disaster which affected the coastlines of the Netherlands and England on the night of 31 January – 1 February 1953. Belgium, Denmark and France were also affected by flooding and storm damage.

A combination of a high spring tide and a severe European windstorm caused a storm tide. In combination with a tidal surge of the North Sea the water level locally exceeded 5.6 metres above mean sea level. The flood and waves overwhelmed sea defences and caused extensive flooding.

Officially, 1,835 people were killed in the Netherlands, mostly in the south-western province of Zeeland. 307 were killed in the United Kingdom, in the counties of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. 28 were killed in West Flanders, Belgium."

I went to see Contingency Plan by Steve Waters at the Bush Theatre this weekend. It was a very good play, unfortunately I cannot urge you to go and see this vital piece of theatre because it is completely sold out for the remainder of the run. You can, however, buy both of the plays in one book, here. Do it, read them. Do it now, I'm not even kidding, I'll wait here, you go to Amazon, look I'll provide you the link again so you don't even have to re-read anything, don't worry, I'll still be here when you come back, click here.

...

Right, good. Thank you. I'm going to talk about the plays now, not with any massive spoilers, but in mildly detailed terms.

The play I saw was On The Beach, I read Resilience before the day was out. These plays are really what theatre can do - it was exemplary political theatre, On The Beach puts the human face on the politics that Resilience expounds on in a dramatic and electrifying manner. You care, you think, by the emotional force you are propelled to practical action (I certainly was).

The plays are set in the near future- amid a David Cameron government. On The Beach is essentially a father/son 'homecoming' drama. The son is the eminent glaciologist who realises he was groomed by his father to communicate unequivocally and through hard science, the global warming theories that caused the government to laugh him out of academia in the 70s. The mother and father live right on the East Coast, on land they have reclaimed, only a literal stone's throw from the North Sea. This is the private, the personal face of the narrative(s) - the small picture. Resilience, on the other hand, deals with the political, the public face of the issues, it dramatises the clash between old and new scientific and environment-governmental approaches, setting out a dramatic agenda for the safety of UK citizens against the background of Arctic sea ice melting at a rapidly increasing rate, and following an imagined small scale extreme weather event. This is scary, credible, electrifying stuff.

One of the things about Climate Change is that more than anything, it is the destabilisation that will get you, a climate may work perfectly well for one place, but transplant it to another and watch it fall apart. We all drew the trees of life at school didn't we? Went out and shook bugs out of trees and counted the different species, walked around counting plants, and watching water boatmen skate across ponds. We know that everything is connected - you disrupt one thing, everything gets out of whack - well right at the top of that tree of life (or the bottom, or all around) is the climate. Change that, and everything else gets seriously disrupted. Destabilisation of the climate means horrible things; on a meteorological level it means flash floods, coastal flooding, droughts, tsunamis, tornadoes and hurricanes, on a human level it means destroyed homes, water shortages, disease, ruined harvests, ever depleting world food stocks, looting, violence, and the destabilisation of power. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has suggested 150 million environmental refugees would exist by 2050. The IPCC is widely considered to make very reserved estimates. James Lovelock, founder of the modern meta-organism (Gaia) theory of climate science predicts that by 2100, 80% of the world's population will have been "wiped out". His is an extreme case, certainly. But as is pointed out in Contingency Plan, in such situations as ours, undue caution is not rewarded.

The storm of '53 is well remembered where I live in Lincolnshire. It was an extreme weather event, but in Contingency Plan, you see how the destabilisation of our climate combined with a rise in sea level make for a volatile world where these 'extreme' weather events are set to become the norm. With frightening credibility a roll call of East Coast towns are given over to the sea, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire (where Steve Waters lives in fact) and finally, much of London too (at this point the politicians become genuinely worried).

Flooding, in the East - the majority of it low lying, much of it reclaimed - is a possibility we're all to aware of. I lived somewhere called Bardney for a few years, when I moved there the local kids lost no time in telling me that it used to be a island (hence the -ney root of the place name). The smallest amount of rain and the fields and ditches didn't hesitate to remind you too. Flat farmland, ditches and dykes. All across Lincolnshire there's marsh land and flat, low ground, the wide open skies and flat boggy beaches of South Holland claimed one of my wellington boots as a child. But the earth is very rich, and the way the sky leans back allows your mind to really breathe.

According to the calculations of this website the village where I grew up will be completely submerged with a sea level rise of 1-2m. Brigg, the family home in Yorkshire, will be erased at 3m. This could take 500 years, it could take 50. But it's a very strange thought - that you might never be able to return to your childhood landscape - that you might never again be able to breathe in the skies and trees and birds that taste, smell and sound like home.

These are all of the thoughts that have occurred to me since seeing and reading Steve's plays. I'm not saying they're all reasoned, it's an emotional response too. What I'm trying to describe is how it has just set me off, just started me tipping over from advocate to activist. I slept very ill last night, and spent the most of today seriously thinking about my lifestyle, on the one hand I don't drive, I bike, bus and train places, have lived and (for the next three years at least) will live within walking and biking distance of my place of work. I recycle, buy locally produced food where possible, lack of money has meant I've rarely been able to afford meat, I use re-usable bags, use Ecover cleaning products, I turn lights off, wash at low tempertaures, I write to my MPs about environmental policy and in my 24 years, I have been on an aeroplane 4 times, something which I don't intend to do again. But I want more, I want to know more, I want to do something. I am a firm believer in action, I will never sit on my laurels if I am unhappy with something, I will change it. I find it very hard to understand when people who are unhappy, who have the choice, don't try and make things better. But having said that, on a personal level I don't know what else I can do. I read today about unplugging chargers, and I'll do that, but in my normal set up (in my own space) I always turned everything off at the wall when I wasn't in the room anyway (out of stupid fire-hazard paranoia, but still). And how much of that is a waste of time? I've been reading today about what a scam 'off-setting' carbon is (link, link, link), what else is a waste of time?

Well all of it is, I suppose, if it's just me - if I never tried to convince anyone else, if I didn't make my political will known - if we don't get massive unpopular decisions made both in government, and worldwide at the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December. And yes they will curb our lifestyles, and yes it will mean sacrifices on all fronts, but ultimately this one of those brave, unimaginable, momentous changes that has to be driven forward - like the issue of the Magna Carta, the abolition of slavery, the introduction of the welfare state.

Only this time we have so much more to lose, so much.

I feel like I am living amid a world of tipping points- in many parts of my life and politic- in feminism, in party politics, in the economy and in the environment, maybe that's how all young [to some degree]-empowered people feel. I also feel like I am at a tipping point within myself. I think I want to be one of the people who gives policy a little push, along with a billion other little pushes, to make a leap in the right direction. I think the way that I do that is join campaigns, petitions, marches and pressure groups. I'm ready to be radical. I think the time demands it.

This is what the play made me feel, and this is how I'm choosing to react to it. You should read it, I'd like to know what you think.

Further reading/action:
How you can make a difference
Climate Change, a guide for the perplexed
How 6 activists changed government policy
Friends of the Earth

2009-05-28T01:18:00.010+01:00

Wordle

Just a quick post - quite a lot going on after moving back to Lincolnshire, trying to find a job, change of address stuff, lots to think about RE the upcoming PhD - including practical things like finding somewhere to live, as well as my involvement with the arts and tech conference Shift Happens (website, twitter) being run by Pilot Theatre (website, twitter) - I've been asked to consider a slightly more formal role than the volunteer-support role that I'd hitherto been offered (via twitter, a completely wonderful out of the blue response to my moaning about not being able to afford to go!). It sounds like a really exciting way to be involved (I'll go into more detail when it's a bit more certain) so I'm formulating ideas about that. Likewise I've also got to arrange a chat with TWP who have asked to talk to me about some potential website/social media questions they have after I'd moved, I also have to complete my treatment/casting info for the commission from Box of Tricks for the 15th of June, and on top of that this weekend I'm going down to see On The Beach, one of the Contingency Plan plays by Steve Waters at The Bush, and the weekend after I'm in Leicester/Loughborough, visiting many friends and possibly house hunting, plus I need to fit in a trip down to Portsmouth/Southampton area to catch up with 3 dear friends thattaway who have always been too expensive a train ride away, and of course there's probably another Manchester trip in the pipeline, a gig in Birmingham on the 26th of June, I'd dearly love to go to Latitude, and a friend and brilliant writer also has a piece at Edinburgh this year...

Phew. I'm clearly far too busy to worry about things like coherent sentences and punctation too (Chelle, I can hear your cry, "you're never too busy!" I'm sorry).

Busy is good though, my only worry is having enough money to do it all, so hopefully someone will hire me to do some mindless filing or bar work soon, and I can fill my weekends with exciting trips to see friends and theatre and festivals, and my evenings with writing and preparing for everything else!

Oh, and the wordle*, see above for a wordle aggregation of my most commonly used words on twitter, click to view it at a slightly more friendly size. Basically the bigger the word, the more often I use it, interesting - and actually I don't appear to swear that much ;-)

*To make the wordle, I got my TweetStats, chose the 'tweet cloud' tab, towards the bottom right there's a 'Wordle' link which take the tweet cloud and make it into a wordle, I clicked there, fiddled with the selection of aesthetic options, and then just did a basic screen grab/crop/save.

RE Twitter, I continue to value it, far more than I've ever have Facebook or Myspace or anything like that. I'm trying to put my finger on why- and I've not really formalised my thoughts on it yet. I suppose there's something of it which isn't about you, what you look like, where you've been, and what you have to say so much as it's about listening to others. For me anyway. I do know that of all the things I have done this year, being a part of twitter has been one of the most life enhancing ones- I laugh a lot more than I used to do, I've had interesting exchanges sparked about New Labour, the British-Chinese experience in theatre, the tactile qualities of moleskines, anarchism and collective decision making, all of the biggest breaking news stories and tech info has come to me first through twitter. In a way that I've never been before - I'm connected to intelligent, politically active, funny, musical, artistic, and clued up people. I'm not saying that isn't something you can't have in real life, but to be perfectly honest, after all my 24 years, 3 schools and 2 universities, I'd never even come across someone my own age before who was remotely interested, let alone active in politics/feminism/environmentalism - through twitter I know they're out there, that they have the same struggles and frustrations, I suppose that in ways that before now I have felt alone, I'm not any more. Is that a sad thing to say? It doesn't feel it. It's brilliant, I get to test my ideas properly, and I get a nice reminder that I'm not all that radical, and I'm not active so much as I am aware. And yes it is useful (has demonstrably been useful for me on several counts) with regards to career-networking - but that's not the point, really. You follow people who say interesting things. I find that exciting. It's all about the words, really. 140 of them. There's no room for filler. Like I said though- more formalised thoughts later - particularly as these new ways of communicating will drip drip drip into my beginning PhD thoughts.

I will post again this weekend with my thoughts on the Contingency Plan play, and I also have a bit of an epic blog bubbling away in the back of my mind RE politics... I had a massive rant on twitter after the horribly cynical, opportunistic, and empty-as-a-pepper (capsicum) reform promises of David Cameron. So I might try and squeeze that into some more reasoned words soonish, depending on what else happens.

Right, I must go, it's quite late, and I'm biking the 6 miles or so to sign up to a few more agencies tomorrow (I can't afford the extortionate bus fare! £1.80 for a single!)

Thanks for reading!
Hanx

2009-05-23T01:40:00.017+01:00

Thank you.

Every year or so- at a point of moving forward or moving on, I have an urge to do a self-portrait- I guess kind of record the moment, and to assess. Right now definitely does feel like a moment to record. I have the wonderful, wonderful opportunity of being funded to study a PhD at Loughborough University. I like Loughborough, as a place it's nice enough, but more importantly when there I am surrounded by friends, I also love Leicester, in general as a city, and also now it has an exciting new theatrical venue, The Curve. Loughborough is near enough to the countryside (and I do need countryside) but Leicester is only 10 minutes away, London an hour and a bit. The proposal I will be working on is one combining my two great loves: theatre, and technology. I will have the chance to combine them both in creative writing - with a chance to look at our new world, our new ways of loving, laughing, communicating - and within ideas of applied theatre - using a combination of the arts and technology to reach out to the disadvantaged and disenfranchised. I have the chance to really make a difference to the world around me; I have time to tell the stories that I think are important, that I think people should hear, and facilitate opportunities for others tell theirs.

I hadn't even allowed myself to hope this might happen, and yet it has. And I'm truly thankful for it - not to any cosmic power - but to my friends and family, for supporting me every step of the way. I'm grateful to my family, for never telling me I couldn't do something, for taking out loans so that I could afford my masters, for always telling me how proud they were of me and for reminding me to take a break occasionally. For friends; putting up with me in my slightly reclusive bouts of ridiculous work ethic, and for being there when I needed to let go and just dance in heat and light and loud music, for telling me constantly that they, at least, had no doubt, and also to new friends, for congratulations via twitter and facebook - to all of you, thank you. This piece of news wasn't complete until I was able to tell you all, to laugh with you, to talk with excitement, to hear and read your congratulations. So thank you. And now: on! I wonder what you think of the drawing? I think I look a lot more grown up there than I feel. (And my hair goes curly like that when I don't straighten it).

Han x

2009-05-20T21:23:00.002+01:00

Just a quick note to say...

I got the PhD studentship - there was only one going for the whole of humanities, £13000ish a year plus fees paid at Loughborough Uni, start in October!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!

Everyone should be this happy :-)

2009-05-18T14:33:00.002+01:00

She stood at the top of the hill. She stood at the top of the hill in the dusk of late summer and looked out across the trees. The highest point for miles, small ruined stonework at the top. She stood on top of a stone, jutting out of the ground, in a long, flowing skirt, her hair dancing in the wind she looked across the cooling ground. The kind of sunset that makes reserved people embarrassed. Showy. And rich. Like spicy orange chocolate. She knew he was behind her, steadying his camera. And she could feel the wind, whipping at her hair. They had known each other a few days, a matter of hours, but they knew right now all they ever wanted to know. They felt giddy, laughed a lot. An orange coloured mini had sped down country roads with strawberry cheesecake ice cream and a blanket in the back. She had leant into the corners as his stereo played loud, deep, soft, electronic music, music that felt like fireworks and the wind through trees. And she had grinned, and they had laughed as they shivered on the blanket, sharing a spoon. And with the taste of sugar, and metal, and cold, numb mouths, he pulled her close. He kissed her. They had watched the stars come out.

This is the memory I have. My daughter thinks it is because I have the picture. I always kept the picture. Took it with me always. I don’t remember much. They always tell me I don’t remember much, well they tell me they always tell me, and why would they lie? Anyway, it's my daughter, I trust her. I remember my daughter. Her beautiful face. That’s not gone yet. She’s a woman. I don’t know what that makes me. Old, I suppose, finally. I don’t mind. I’m not sad. How do miss what you don’t remember you’ve had? It’s hazy, but I can still chatter away. I’m chattering away aren’t I? But I remember her. I remember that girl, who thought she was a grown up, 19 years old and standing on top of that hill. I have the photo he took. I don’t remember what happened to him. But I get the feeling, I get the feeling that’s one of the things I’m glad I forgot. My granddaughter wrote something down on this piece of paper, when her mother wasn’t looking. I have a granddaughter for goodness sake! ‘He broke your heart grandma’ it says. I must have told her the story. I think I am glad it’s gone, that bit, I’m glad he went. I think that would hurt. But the other memory - I’ve got the photo. I don’t want to give that up. I’m not going to give that up. I can still taste it.

2009-05-12T19:12:00.002+01:00

Science Fiction Theatre, new politics?

Yep, apologies again, I do have a very good excuse that was the worst migraine I've ever had, with proper visual disturbances and everything, and then (just recovered in time) I went to Manchester, and had a really brilliant weekend of just what I needed: friends, rock music, drink, video games and laughter. I feel almost happy! Plus only 12 MORE DAYS in Wolverhampton! YAY! So yes, that's the reason for the gap in posts. But fear not loyal reader, this one will hopefully make up for it, for it is a rambling MONSTER.

OK, so while also doing shorter updates about what I'm up to and where I'm going with things, I did mention maybe doing more editorial-style blog entry every now and then. A bit of a chunkier look into my ideas on... things. Not sure what things exactly, but I suppose that it will probably be either theatre/arts or politics/feminism, these being the main forces that drive me. So yes, here's a tentative first stab at one of these!

SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE

Yep, I'm on about that again. The reason I want to talk about my ideas for Science Fiction, or 'Speculative' Fiction on stage (aside from the fact it has formed the main body of my playwriting so far) is the very intriguing and quizzical reactions I have had to my writing so far. I should preface this with saying that by no means am I a fully-fledged playwright – I am still 'emerging' ('young' playwright is no longer PC –ageist, you see) and will hopefully always be learning – as thus I'm sure some of the reactions to my writing may be to just that – the actual writing, and not the choice of genre, but some of it definitely isn't, some of it is a direct recoil from 'genre'(in the pejorative sense).

I will discuss these reactions a little later, but first I want to try and explain the use do I think porting these genres to the stage will have, why I think they are exciting, important and useful.

In my mind this kind of theatre has the potential to form a new kind of political theatre. I'll begin with a quote from the (sadly, recently late) great Augusto Boal

Theatre is a weapon. A very efficient weapon […] for this reason the ruling classes try to take hold of theatre and utilise it as a tool for domination […] but the theatre can also be a weapon of the liberation. For that, it is necessary to change appropriate theatrical forms. Change is imperative.

p. ix, Boal, Augusto. Theatre of the Oppressed (New Edition). London: Pluto Press, 2000.

Politics and the majority of theatre, in my opinion, have at their hearts the same driving force. A belief in the individual and collective voice. A belief that experience informs belief which in application can produce change for the better. Change is the aim of political theatre (what theatre doesn't pertain to either a personal or public politic is another question entirely). To initiate change in ideas and ideals, as Boal suggests, theatrical forms must always be in flux, they cannot stagnate because it is at that point you begin to accept, rather than question. I do not mean change from week to week, but I'm talking in terms of movements. Has theatre really had a movement since In-Yer-Face 90s theatre? I think theatre must continually be re-appropriated for new worlds and generations because theatre has the power to open our eyes, for us to see our many selves- it has a power beyond all other art forms; because of story.

When we are young we tell stories through play, it's how we learn, how we explore our world, our roles within it, but somehow people seem to think that eventually, they become too grown up for stories. That is why we miss the new coercive narratives, the stories and roles that rest within the covers of magazines, flicker on our screens and are emblazoned on the side of buildings. These stories bombard us every day, and tell us who and how we should be. We need new stories, stories to challenge and rival these. We need to key into something that has more truth, more life; this is why I believe in stories played out in the theatre.

When you watch theatre, when you believe in it, you invest in it a part of your life; you credit it with a small but important part of yourself. A play is built of a hundred little volunteered hours, it is a rift in the space time continuum, a coming together of a hundred hours into one. This is why theatre can make you gasp; make the breath catch in your lungs for the life that you see onstage, because it is, in a small and immense way, a part of you. For some, theatre is a first taste of a collective experience.

Has theatre really had a movement since In-Yer-Face 90s theatre? My experience of theatre is unfortunately one severely limited by funds, and founded on a university course which rarely looked at post 2000 work, so call me on it if you have a better answer, but I think the time is ripe for a new theatre, a theatre that draws in a new generation bereft by context. There are adults now who have not known a world without the internet, for whom political extremes have been replaced by apparently middle ground hogging-expense abusing-privately educated white men that known as much about us as we about them. This is not my opinion, but it is the opinion of many of my contemporaries, most of whom have never voted. Apathy, to me, seems to be the aim of a lazy, right wing media who would find things a lot easier if they could just produce lifestyle magazines. I understand why in all of the difficult suffering and wars, injustices which don't fit into an easy 'good or bad' conflict people just want to shut themselves off to it. I understand this because I know how much each horrible piece of pain that the media and the internet delivers me, hurts. It hurts because I am only one person. It hurts because one person can change everything; it hurts because I don't have the space to help everyone. So you disconnect. History is everywhere for this generation, constantly in the making. But the wars happen elsewhere, we see things on our screens, and for all of it, the horror is never really a part of our lives. I believe that we need a way of helping people see again, and to do that we must make people feel uneasy, unsafe, wobbly. It is not history, but the future that we need now, in order that this generation might see themselves here, and nowhere else, here with the ability to participate. I believe in the future. I believe that new theatrical forms are sorely needed for the continuing relevancy and power of theatre.

Theatre must constantly be in flux, we must find new forms, new ways of playing with stories because we can undo the pain of the modern world, we can begin to learn again. Theatre is not a reflection of life, but rather a reflection of what it could be- it is the art of possibility.

Theatre must reflect new worlds.

And this is where I believe science/speculative fiction theatre can come in.

There are a few examples of this happening in theatre, they are growing, I saw Zero by Theatre Absolute half a year ago – set in an anonymous future where series of internment camps criss-cross the world, Far Away by Caryl Churchill, if you ask me, is a spectacular, breathtaking piece of dystopian fiction, and Steve Water's Contingency Plan double bill about a climate change is set in the near future, and currently getting rave reviews at The Bush. I really believe that where we are now, in the late 'noughties', on a wave that is beginning to swell, moving towards a tipping point – I feel this in the new wave of feminism, I feel it in the new questions being raised about the sustainability of the particular form of capitalism we have heretofore subscribed, I feel that it must happen in politics, and I feel that it is happening to stories now too. People in a world of web 2.0 and constant connectivity, laugh, love and communicate in entirely new ways. Is theatre currently fitted out to portray these new ways of being? To work with new ideas of identity and gender, or to harness the wonderfully widespread and democratising power of technology? I believe that all these big new question marks are making the world shift, and that theatre is also beginning to find its current skin too restrictive.

In my work I portray possible futures, in Being Someone Else I try to look at love, loss, and identity in the gaming world, in the radio play Bird Woman I loosely borrow from a 70s feminist fable to touch upon the feeling of being a young girl, and in Eismas I imagine a world where a single child policy has been enforced throughout Europe. I use these elements of SF, Spec-fic and fantasy with political intent- particularly in my most recent piece Eismas, I have used SF as a kind of distancing device – a cerebral as opposed to emotional distance – in order that an audience can relax, think 'oh but this isn't about me, it's just a story' but then I also hope that they would care about the central characters that they follow the journey of the piece and see how we could get there- and because they felt the pain of the world, see that they want for us not to be there, see this world in the light of what it might become. See that we have a chance, now, to change it.

This is not a new idea. From Victorian ghost stories (A Christmas Carol!) to feminist and socialist science fiction, to fairy stories, all of these have aimed to mould people's feelings in the same way. Is it coercive? I suppose it is. But no more, I think, than any piece of storytelling.

So, back to why I am talking about why I write within the bounds of SF. I have had some very interesting experiences over the past year so, of a very odd resistance to SF on stage. Both of the external moderators on the masters I did at Birmingham commented that they did not like SF on my reader reports. One said that should and would not colour his report on my piece, the other accused the play of 'wanting to be a Hollywood film' and called me 'a writer with very little experience of, or perhaps interest in, the material realities of making theatre'. Likewise at the recent workshopped reading of Eismas the question was asked: 'wouldn't this be better as a film?' This produced a reasonably heated discussion, in which my director expressed the following (heavily paraphrased) sentiment: 'this is not about the genre, this is about the content. Theatre, to me, is about people and politics: having something to say. This is not a play set in a big special effect driven world, this is a play about two people, and their relationship.' Eismas shows the public sphere through the pain it exerts on the private. If you ask me, that is the stuff for theatre. This discussion was made doubly strange by the fact that two of the other plays were historical ones, one of which made allusions to vampirism, and the other was about psychics in Edwardian times! But I suppose that was exactly the reaction that I need isn't it? The other half of the room really connected with the political content of the piece, and it's that unease, that unease which is key to my political intent.

My mum (as ever) puts it succinctly when she says 'it's just snobbery, people forget, don't they, that all stories are fiction' all of the universes are invented, why not play with that? Why not use that edge to try and provoke the feeling that the future is invented. We decide what we want it to be.

Change is imperative. Theatrical forms must always be in flux. Theatre has the power to open our eyes, for us to see our many selves, to see ourselves anew. Let's write about the future. Let's talk about now. Let's learn about being human again. Let's participate.

Thanks for reading.

2009-05-02T12:21:00.004+01:00

Rehearsed Reading/Commission

Hello all, just a quick entry following the rehearsed reading of Eismas in Stoke Newington last night, a massive thanks to Scary Little Girls Productions for the opportunity, and the hard work of the following people:

Ona – Sally Mortemore (pictured)
Dominic – Nick Afka (pictured)
Stage Directions – Sharon Andrews
Direction - Rachel Warr (pictured)

It was really brilliant to see a scene from this piece on its feet, the actors and director were wonderful, that director really seemed to get the heart of the piece and the characters straight away (which is reassuring for my writing). And the actors were lovely, Nick really got hold of the frenetic impotence of Dominic, and Sally the lonely strength of Ona. The audience had some really interesting reactions to it and I have lots of scribbled notes which will be useful in a redraft (Eismas is currently only at first draft stage). I still haven't quite got used to real people playing the words that I write, it was really moving to see this scene in particular played out as it is kind of the crux of the first half of Ona and Dominic's emotional journey. It's also still very interesting to see how audience react to (for want of a better genre) speculative fiction on stage, some people really seem to click with the political intent of the piece, and thought that the emotions drew you in, but the future setting distanced you enough for analysis, whereas others felt too alienated, or thrown too far into the deep end (though admittedly we did choose a highly emotional scene, halfway through). All in all a brilliant experience, I unfortunately had to leave straight after the formal feedback section and didn't get a chance to chat with people afterwards, but Becca, who runs SLGP, said she'd be in contact soon, so I'm looking forward to that!

Also, one extra piece of brilliant news is that I've been offered a commission! How brilliant, with a proper workshopped reading and a commission under my belt I no longer feel a fraud when responding to 'what do you do?' with 'I'm a playwright'.  Here are some details about the commission:
[Box of Tricks Theatre Company are] currently developing plans for our Autumn/Winter season, and are looking to programme Word:Play 3 - one word, six new plays.  The premise, as ever, is to give six playwrights a word of inspiration and commission them to write a 15-minute play in response.The last one was at Theatre503, so quite well known venue possibilities. I'm so happy about this, and not just because it's specifically brilliant news, but also before, more generally, that I keep on pushing a little further, get long listed, then short listed, get readings and small commissions, it means I'm getting better, and that It's worth trying. It can be hard to tell sometimes, with half a year between submission and feedback, whether you should keep trying, or whether you're self-delusional. Hopefully this is another step forward, and the trying should continue. So yes, watch this space for more exciting news on that!

Finally, just a little nod to all on Twitter who offered support and travel advice throughout the day yesterday! I am actually beginning to worry that I like my twitter friends a lot more than I like my Facebook ones, which is a tad worrying, as twitter is made mainly for people I've not met IRL! Mind you most of my best friends seem to be tech-challenged and aren't on either (or don't use fbook very much). And I think adding people on twitter is more about people who you admire or are interested in, whereas Facebook is about people you're photographed or went to school/uni with... Hm. Maybe it's just because Twitter is only bout the words/joke/sentiment, and it's just an expression of character which appeals to me more? I wonder...

Must be off now, my lovely friend Jon visiting this weekend for wine, lasagne, board games and films, so must get to the shops and stock up on the essentials (for example, I don't own Scrabble! :-o) All best, and watch this space!

Hanx

2009-05-01T07:57:00.003+01:00

Loss V

I fall in love a lot. I travel by train every day. And I people watch. I don’t know whether or not everyone secretly looks at everyone else, or if it’s just me. But I like to look. I do like to watch people. And I don’t mean to, but I do, I do fall in love. It’s the way they close their eyes as the warmth of the sunlight filters through the carriage, or the battered, well loved book I see them secretly smell, or the fact that they keep their laptop in a battered old leather satchel. Last week I fell in love with someone because he had ridiculous shorts on. There was this guy, who did a silent punch in the air when he finished his Sudoku puzzle. And this other one, who just stared, stared into the dark, when all you could really see was the dirt on the dusty windows. I loved him because he didn’t need the time and place where we were to be clear for him to see what he was thinking. I don’t drive. I own a bicycle, but they’re not really up to the long distances are they? So I travel a lot by train. And fall in love daily. I imagine a hundred different futures. And hundred different whispered vows. I don’t think it’s weird. I can’t be the only one. I told a friend once. She laughed a bit but I think she thought I was weird. She asked me why I didn’t talk to any of them, and to be honest, I didn’t know what to say. “Well, I mean they never talk to me do they? And they’d probably think I was weird, wouldn’t they?” The truth was, it had never occurred to me.

2009-04-30T20:53:00.007+01:00

Loss IV

I have a teddy bear. I know. I’m an adult, right? I have this bear. A ratty old thing. I think an aunty bought it for me at one point. Before I can remember. It’s knitted, made of wool, it’s got straggly arms, brown eyes and a little green knitted belt. I’ve had this bear for a very long time. Though don’t ask me how many times it’s been washed. When I was little my mum used to steal it off me, put it in the washer. Now I’m in charge it’s been a while since it’s been wet. It never used to smell right afterwards. Boyfriends came and boyfriends went, usually going a bit faster if they poked fun at the bear thing. I once dated a guy who had a security blanket. It smelt a bit weird. But the bear, yes. It has a name. It’s called ‘superted’. I’m not crazy, I don’t talk to it, that’s just it’s name. And it sits in the crook of my arm when I sleep, there’s a bit, just between my arm and my right breast. If it doesn’t sit there when I sleep it feels weird. Empty. My husband puts up with it. Sometimes I dream that I have two. Bears, not husbands. Those dreams are always distressing, because I don’t know which one is real, or how to divide my attention. You know, in that weird kind of dream logic. And then sometimes, I have these nightmares. Maybe my nightmares should be about losing my health, or the kids, or my husband cheating on me. But they’re not. They all revolve around this horrible moment when I find out my bear has been damaged or eaten or stolen or dissolved or torn beyond repair. And I feel everything fall away then. I have no anchor. And I wake up, and I can’t even find tears, it’s not like that. It’s like something from the very heart of me has gone, just for a moment. Like how my right arm feels when I have to sleep without it.

2009-04-29T21:01:00.006+01:00

Loss III

Divorce is harder than death. It is. With death you have the irrecoverable loss of someone to deal with, but with divorce, you have rejection too. As a process, divorce is much more cruel. And, theoretically, reversible. Death is inert. Divorce is mutable, an unstable, unknowable value. With death there is a grieving process, an equation, it makes sense. Divorce is messy, an indivisible fraction, remainders all over the place. Divorce is harder than death. I’m not saying it’s any more of a loss. But it’s a harder one. More complex.

2009-04-28T20:51:00.018+01:00

Loss II

I associate burnt baked beans with his death. I got the letter, it was hand delivered. Of course you know, you know by that point. But you open it, you open it because you know, you also know that it’s not true. Not true. I read it. And then tea was burning. The beans were black, actually black. Fine one minute, and then all black and stuck to the bottom. The sausages were ok, they were just in the oven. But the beans were black. I suppose some time must have passed but I didn’t, didn’t know that it had. I turned off the heat, and I put the pan in to soak. Big, great big puffs of steam. And I wondered if, I wondered how much he suffered. What it was like. You don’t want to. You scream at yourself not to. But you still do. You still wonder if the body, if it tries to breathe - like a dream where you have to move but you can’t. The feeling of gasping, needing, your lungs bursting for air, gasping, and breathing water. Thicker. Thicker. Thicker than it should be. And I was ashamed. I was ashamed that this, this officer, or whatever, was standing there, seeing me in my pink fluffy slippers, cooking beans and sausages for tea. I mean it’s the look of the thing, isn’t it? I felt ashamed. Guilty. Obviously he was perfectly, obviously he was very respectful, but I couldn’t help feeling that he, he was looking down on me.

I still eat baked beans. I don’t like them, and it always makes me think of him. I see him. And sometimes he’s a little, rotten, baked bean, lying at the bottom of the sea in his black tin can. But I still eat them. I don’t want to be someone who - I mean you have to carry on don’t you? You have to. You have to.

2009-04-27T18:11:00.002+01:00

Loss I

“Don’t go” she said

“I have to” He said

But he didn’t. She buried her face, her long silver hair splayed across the bed.

“Stay longer” she said”

“I can’t linger” he said “besides, how are we to make an omelette without eggs?”

He was being metaphorical of course, in that annoying way of his, really he was in love with her sister.

2009-04-23T11:33:00.002+01:00

The E-Flyer for the workshopped reading of Eismas

2009-04-22T21:18:00.006+01:00

Illness, writing, and workshopping.

I know, I know, it's been a while, yes? I'm sorry, I have a note Miss, I've been ill, vomiting in fact. Vomiting commas by the look of that last sentence. But yes, I have been ill for about a week, and only really feeling better over the weekend, then I went gallivanting off to London for a second PhD meeting (The Loughborough funding looking so-so I thought I'd spread my eggs over two metaphorical baskets, and am putting a block grant application into Royal Holloway). The meeting was excellent (it was also really nice to be in London for a day, the place is calling to me!) but unfortunately cut severely into my Being Someone Else redraft final few days. Which took me up to yesterday, and then work, and now here I am. So that's my long winded excuse for not posting sooner. The redraft went OK, I haven't had the chance to do a reading, or have some time away from it so I have gotten to the point where I honestly don't know whether I'm making the thing better or worse, and have just posted it off to Steve for the final time. In hope. I really need the externals to like it this time, and I'd also quite like it to be a good play.

I have two other things to announce (don't get too excited) the first is that without any creative stuff happening after this redraft (I'm going to take a little break before reworking Eismas, or starting anything new) I am going to try and keep my hand in with some shorter writing, monologues, short stories, bits of prose, that kind of thing. And I will be posting them here. The first thing I'm going to do starting Monday is a little piece of writing on the theme of 'loss' each day for 7 days- a week of little writings. Why 'loss'? It was something provided as a stimulus for submissions elsewhere - I didn't have time to do anything, but did have quite a lot of ideas, so though I may as well go for it - so I will. Watch this blog- Monday through Friday next week for some EPIC WRITINGS. That's right. The other thing I have to announce are the details of the workshopped extract of Eismas that's happening on the 1st of May, see below for more. Should be really good to hear the piece, get some reactions etc. Thanks for the opportunity to Scary Little Girls. Stay tuned later in the week for the new writings, and feedback from the 1st of May.
Thanks for reading x

Dear Friends,

The second Scary Little Salon is upon us!

This time rather than focusing generally on new writing we're honing in on four plays that Scary Little Girls are currently developing/potentially interested in developing. Here's some information on the selected plays:

'Consuming Stories' written by Rebecca Mordan

Under permanent house arrest, surrounded by scandalous accusations of blood and perversion, the Countess Bathory is told stories by the one servant remaining to her. The boredom that threatens the sanity of both women is in part staved off by the tales that are brought to life before the Countess in the single tower room. The only other change in the monotonous existence of the Lady and her retainer is the occasional visits from the man who first accused and then incarcerated Bathory, her son-in-law and the inheritor of her lands since her trial - but do his visits come at their own cost?

‘If You Lived Here You Would Be Home By Now’ written by LH Trevail

When the biometric lock refuses to open in a state-of-the-art city show-home, three prospective tenants and one estate agent are temporarily imprisoned in the lap of plastic luxury. As their situation becomes increasingly inconvenient they find escape and privacy in their dreams, but someone has been taking their dreaming a tad too seriously.

'The Tenth Box' written by Kate Kerrow

World War II Medium, Helen Duncan meets the most pre-eminent psychic investigator of his generation, Mr. Harry Price. During a series of arranged seances, Harry begins to uncover the secrets behind Helen's infamous materialisations leading to key evidence which contributes to her being the penultimate woman to stand trial for for Witchcraft in Britain.

'Eismas' written by Hannah Nicklin.

Eismas is set roughly 30 years in the future.

Amid a world of large scale flooding and other 'extreme' weather, several ruined harvests mean that global food supplies are scarce. A one child policy has been enforced throughout Europe . Eismas (Lithuanian for traffic) imagines a black market trade in healthy male babies, for which women are trafficked across the EU (as well as for the 'standard' sex trade).

It would be wonderful to see you all there for food, drink, fun and entertainment. It's also a unique opportunity to shape the direction SLG takes in the near future, your creative and critical feedback is a really important part of the evening.

Event details:
Date: Friday 1st May
Time: 7pm
Venue: Bodrums Cafe
61 Stoke Newington High Street
Stoke Newington
London
N16 8EL

Transport: For map, underground, overground and travel by car see http://www.londontown.com/TransportInformation/Restaurant/Bodrum_Cafe/74e0/#MAP

If you are travelling by bus:
Take the 73 towards Seven Sisters from Euston or Angel or from Angel take the 476 towards Northumberland Park . Both buses run every 4-7 minutes and the 73 is 24 hours.

Many Thanks,
SLG Team

2009-04-06T23:03:00.004+01:00

Painting and PhD.

Hello all, only a few days over the week limit I try to keep to between posts. In all fairness I have been working very hard, finished the painting above yesterday which I should hopefully get some money from soonish. (Commissions always welcome). And as well as generally baking/cooking up a week or so's worth of food on a £10 budget I have been working on my PhD proposal. I did promise to put some of it up in case there was a modicum of interest out there, so see below for a rough outline of my intentions. On a general note I have also been getting quite interested in maths recently, ideas about infinity started it off, there's something very pure about maths, it sort of underscores everything in the universe- any science can be reduced to mathematics eventually, or rather ultimately relies on the laws of maths. An interesting fact I found out yesterday in fact was that apparently quantum energy levels in certain atoms, London parking, the vibrations of a quartz sphere when struck with a ball bearing, and the bus timetable of a city in Mexico are all governed by prime numbers. Governed is perhaps not the right word, occur in the same incidence of maybe. But yes, fascinating, elegant and difficult stuff. I like! Otherwise I'm just getting on with it. Still lots of things hanging around my future which are hopefully going to happen. I daren't even hope for this PhD studentship sometimes, because of how very much I want it. The workshopped reading of a 20 min section of either Eismas or Being Someone Else by Scary Little Girls is happening in London on the 1st of May, and I'm (still) waiting for my Royal Court feedback. After that a redraft of Eismas and sending it off to some theatres by late summer I think. So yes, all go. Hopefully soon (at least with a stroke of luck in getting a job pretty smartish after moving back home for the summer) I should be able to have just a little bit of spare cash and even, even take a break to somewhere like Scarborough! I can dream... Hope all are well, thanks for reading,
Hanxx

Hannah Nicklin - Research Proposal
(All of this is © Hannah Nicklin 2009)

Title: Theatre and Technology

The scope of the topic: Theatre and Technology will look at technology as both vehicle and subject matter in contemporary theatre. On the one hand the study will look at the true (as opposed to gimmick-driven) use of technology in theatre, particularly in a political and educational context, and on the other it will consider how theatre-writing can address the changing face of human social-interaction in a ‘Web 2.0’ world. The study will work towards theorising and testing a series of new models and genres for the application of technology in theatre and within theatrical storytelling. I intend that this research will form a fundamental and relevant collection of methods and theorisation of how theatre can react and adapt to new media.

Methods/approach/theory: The research will take the form of a 60:40 theory:practice split. The theory will be developed out of a philosophical (mainly phenomenological and semiotic) starting point and will converge with reading on narrative in technology, identity and social media, gender/race studies, applied theatre, and colonialism in a theatrical context. The research will then drive an investigation into two main areas; the use of technology in theatre, and how the experience of technology is portrayed in theatre. From here the two strands will be developed via discussion with the current theatrical world.

The first part of Theatre and Technology will examine how applied theatre can reap the benefits of gender/race/class and youth activism in the context of new technology, and how the democratising power of the internet can be harnessed in a live theatrical framework in order to speak to new audiences. Following on from a theoretical starting point the ideas will be informed by direct interviews with theatre practitioners and participants, taking in projects ranging from the National Theatre’s live streaming programme, to C&T Theatre’s innovative use of technology and theatre in learning. There will also be a dedicated online space and social networking presence for the thesis in order to allow debate and discussion, and the testing of theories in practice.

In the second part of the study, the thesis will move on from the theory to look at the ‘bracketed’ aspect of live performance, and how the tension between identity, reality and story is imitated in technology. The study will question how far mainstream theatre-writing has delved into modern ideas of identity, loneliness, and being, and work to develop new modes and genres in order to examine the problems inherent in telling the stories of the contemporary world.

The practice will interweave between these two parts, testing theories of technology in theatre as a socio-political tool, as well as developing a body of theatre-writing examining contemporary models and genres, allowing theatre new ways of examining identity and human interaction in the age of web 2.0. The applied theatre writing will be developed alongside current practising companies, and the creative writing will be showcased in a ‘testing ground’ of invited professionals and non-professionals in a dedicated space at the Royal Court Theatre, to which I have access through my work on their Young Writers Programme.

Plan of work: In June 2009 I will be working with Pilot Theatre on the live streaming and tweeting of their Shift Happens 2.0 conference. This conference will bring together theatre professionals, critics and academics (including the National Theatre, Lyn Gardner, C&T Theatre, Hoipolloi, the Cornerhouse, Charlie Leadbeater and more) to discuss technology in theatre - from live streaming and social networking, to genuine interactivity with the creative and performative processes. I intend to use this event to make contacts, and ground my ideas about theatre and technology in the realities of theatre-making from the outset. The thesis will then develop a highly theoretical base, working on the phenomenology and semiotics of theatre, how it is suited to the exploration of virtual worlds, as well considering the democratising and educational potential of technology in the face of the new media revolution. After a period of reading and developing ideas I will test them in practice through interviews with practitioners and participants, as well as developing and workshopping creative writing, and testing new applied theatre ideas in their intended context. I will continue to keep in touch with the theatre profession, throughout all of my work and use a dedicated web space as an area to develop and openly debate my ideas and findings in order to produce work that is technologically current, and practically relevant. This process of theorising and testing will naturally occur several times as I redevelop and refine my ideas and begin to present my work.

2009-03-29T23:55:00.005+01:00

State of the Nation.

Hello again, let's not break tradition, do let me begin by apologising for gaps between posts. I am beginning to wonder whether a few sentences every other day, and a big, more formal, essay style blog once a month might be a better way to go. That way I could keep up to date, and also choose a big issue I want to address. I just feel a growing guilt the longer I leave between posts, which is why, after very little sleep (combination of trying to get a train from anywhere in Lincolnshire, to anywhere else, and British Summer Time). So yes. I am very tired. I am also still a little hungover. I stayed the night at a friends' in Loughborough, and when I'm not the one pouring I loose track quite easily. I don't often do that kind of thing so felt a little embarrassed at the workshop today. Don't think I lagged too much, just worried that I looked hungover.

The workshop was a TWP and Derby Writes event on State of the Nation plays. Very, very interesting. Lots of different approaches, we talked about top down (David Hare, David Edgar) SotN plays, which address the politicians, and the public face of the state, and bottom up plays (Look Back in Anger, A Raisin in the Sun) which address the people who live in the state, and the private face of a state. There was a lot of basic form/character/subtext work, which is always essential. And also a lot of debate, which I really do love. It was brilliant to be able to get stuck in, and really eke out how I feel and what I want from a SotNP. My first reaction (one of the first questions we were asked) to 'what is a SotNP?' was 'irrelevant in it's current form, as written by white, middle class (straight?) 70s agitprop men'. Pretty damning, I know, but do forgive me, it was a gut reaction question, and that is how I feel without my academic hat on. (IE I completely acknowledge their contribution and relevance to the state of the 70s and 80s, I just think that the private face of discrimination is what needs dealing with now, rather than policy on its own.). There were also some interesting points made a la every play being essentially a state of the contemporary nation play. Which it is. I agree with that, I think (and said) that the definition of a SotNP comes, instead, when a playwright addresses that play to the state/nation/world/eternal human condition (the latter added to accept Beckett into the fold). And then, if we are using a 'bottom up' approach, there are several ways of addressing the macrocosmic scale - such as a character (The Inspector in An Inspector Calls, Trovimov (sp?) in The Cherry Orchard) metaphor and imagery (much of the speech in Anouilh's Antigone, in the language of fear in Far Away) and in themes (the American Dream in The Death of a Salesman, eternity in Endgame).

It did make me wonder where my (ostensibly political, and definitely addressing themselves to the state/world) plays fit in. The two main pieces I am currently work on are both pieces of speculative theatre - one imagines a virtual world so popular that the founder of it is worried that it is stopping people's participation in real life (it basically asks a confusing question about the nature of reality) - and the second play imagines the effect of a single child policy on the UK, through a romance between a man and a whore, trafficked to the UK for a higher demand in (now legal) sex workers, and a black market trade in healthy male babies. I hope that they're slightly less melodramatic than they sound when I write them down. In essence the first is about blurred reality, and the second is a love story. (New question, are all plays a love story?). So yes, lots from the workshop to apply to those ideas, particularly the use of format in exposition (talking about politics in a seduction was one good example). The workshop was run by Noël Greig and Philip Osment who were lovely, very open, very interested in our ideas, and very supportive throughout. They are both also legends in their own right to me as part of Gay Sweatshop, who along with Monstrous Regiment and Women's Theatre Group stood up (and rightly so) to the WASP(plus male, middle class and straight) agitprop left of the 70s and said 'fair enough, revolution, we're up for that, but how about include us too?'. There is often a problem in the left, or indeed of any radical political movement, of a 'you're either with us or against us' mentality. 'if you're not a banana, then you must be an orange'. That kind of thing, I found plenty of that in my research into the Nationalist movement in Egypt which ends up going further back into the worst of the conservative Islamist principles and seriously rescinding women's rights (NB, principles considered 'tradition' and not actually taken from the Koran itself), and in the Nationalist movement of the 1916 Easter uprising in Ireland - women were told that if they were Sinn Fein, they could not align themselves with the suffragettes, because an emancipated Irishwoman, under British rule, was still not free. Am I babbling? Probably, it's quite late. But basically the workshop was really great, many thanks for TWP, and particularly Bianca, for organising and subsidising it.

And now I thought I would just choose a few extracts from the great deal of writing I did over the couple of days, a sort of flavour for the creative work. Do bear in mind it is all completely unedited stuff, just speed writing most of it, so allow for clumsiness!

Enjoy:

The State of the Nation play... Is dry and past it in its current form and concerns as written by 70s agitprop white middle class men.

The State... Is much maligned and generally demonised and as grey a place you'd ever get making black and white decisions.

The Individual... Is the smallest unit of potential.

Powerlessness is... Being in love.
Power is... Being loved.

"I fainted the first time I fell in love. I fainted. I didn't know what was wrong with me. It was scary. I was at work in a factory, up a step ladder trying to find a replacement plastic part in a box. I dropped my list. Felt dizzy. I got down in time but I fainted. Powerlessness is being alone. Is the fear that underscores being in love. It hurts. It's scary. And before then I'd never known - never understood any of it. But what would I do - what would I say to myself, then, as me now? Nothing. I'd say nothing. I wouldn't even show my face. I'd stand and look though. Watch myself, dizzy, walking across the dusty factory floor to get a sip of water. And I think I'd know that it had to happen. I'd watch it confusing me, scaring me, knowing that all the hurt and tears had to happen so that I could realise the power of being loved, and the powerlessness of loving someone."

A speech as head of state that had to include several unconnected words (Black, Winter, Alaska, Fire, English, Children, Dignity, God, Milk, Soup, Teeth, Bone, Dreaming, Mother, Eyes, Love, Nothing, Children, Pain, Justice, Song, Dog, Father)

"It would be wrong of me to stand here in front of you and not admit that there are dark days ahead of us. Black clouds gathering over previous governments are beginning to blot out the sun. I know there is a lot of fear. Nor will I diminish the fact that you feel that, however I will say that we will face the economic trials of today with dignity and consideration. Too long we have taken and taken, come to expect, neglected the environment, neglect our selves. But we will get through this Winter, Spring will come again. 'Green shoots' is what the economists say.

The media takes pleasure in the so-called failures of the state. I will say this now, in front of cameras and microphones and reporters: They must not be allowed to become the new god of our times, pulling strings and dictating a warped moral philosophy. Trying to affect the soup of prejudice and manipulated headlines that bubbles away each day has become the main job of politicians. This should not be so. I do not dismiss the media, but feel that their calls for accountability should be applied to them too.

We are a strong nation, teeth and bone and sinew. We are also small. And have made ourselves strong through dreaming of a bigger world, driven by the fire - and I do say fire- of the workers of this nation; the nurses, teachers and health workers that care for us.

The environment is also a keen and ongoing concern. The recent pipeline exploration in Alaska has highlighted a decision that we all, mothers sons and daughters need to make about our future. Will we look our children in the eyes and tell them that we would rather choose lifestyle over their future?"

An Issue piece in the style of Antigone rebelling against her brother (top down):
NB. I wrote this in response to a combination of guidelines that were issued to senior management at Lincolnshire County Council and to female employees of the Bank of England

A: I think you know why you're here
B: I know you think you do
A: Now come on, we just wanted to instill equal rules for everyone
B: I know you think you did
A: We have. And your childish attempt to ridicule what were carefully considered, tested and-
B: I objected. I lodged an official objection.
A: And it was officially considered and - look, do you not agree that some certain standards of dress should be adhered to in the Bank of England?
B: I do
A: You would expect a certain standard of attire from a male colleague, yes? A suit, a tie, smart shoes?
B: Certainly
A: So why do you feel the need to undermine -
B: I am not undermining.
A: I don't understand why we have a problem, a week ago you wore make-up, a week ago you had smart shoes and-
B: I wore heels you mean
A: Look-
B: No you look. Last week I was not required to wear make-up. Last week I was not required to wear at least a 2 inch but no more than a 3 inch heel
A: There are male guidelines too
B: 'women should not show their midriff'. how about all the fat bellies that you can see peeking out from under badly fitted shirts?
A: This went to peer review
B: Most of our peers are men! Look. I don't object to reasonable standards of office dress. What I do object to is cynical excuses for men to comment on womens' appearance. Whether or not I wear make-up, heels, or 'bangles' is not a reflection of how well I do my job. this is my body. That you feel you have the right to suggest not decorating it in the 'right' manner renders it inappropriate is not OK.
A: I see. You're a Feminist are you?
B: I am a human being. Not a doll.
A: I see that nothing is going to come of my approaching you in a reasonable way.
B: No. not a tack I have ever seen you try.

And finally, a piece developed from notes written on idle conversation with an added 'world stage' political context. (Subtext and bottom up).

A: It's a lovely cottage isn't it
B: Yes, lovely
A: lovely
(Pause)
I love that red- that red brickwork - you know, industrial
B: I prefer Roman personally
A: What?
B: Roman architecture. I prefer Roman architecture.
A: Ah yes, but your house is cream - like cream stone isn't it
B: (absentmindedly) It was, yeas. Cream.
(Beat)
I've always liked copper on a building.
A: Copper?
B: Copper - like that over there.
A: Goes green doesn't it?
(Pause)
That's a very yellow car.
(Nothing)
Very yellow.
(Pause)
B: Very yellow
A: Pardon?
B: Nothing.
(Pause)
A: I used to have a metro. A metro in this soft yellow. Soft yellow it was.
B: Soft? Like that?
A: No, no, much softer than that
B: Like the colour of that crane?
A: No, not like that.
B: Or that building - that building with the orange sign there
A: No it wasn't orange.
B: I mean the building - the colour of the building.
(Pause)
A: No.
(Pause)
It was a good car. A good little metro. You've always had your Minis though haven't you? Never have just one Mini, Mini drivers. How's the gold one?
B: What?
A: The gold Mini
B: Had to sell it.
(Pause)
A: It's strange seeing that - the crane and scaffolding. You see that a lot these days. They never seem to be actually building. Just put the scaffolding up and-
B: Because they've run out of money.
A: Sorry?
B: It's because they've run out of money
(Silence)
A: Oh. Right.
(Pause)
Right.
(Pause)
B: Empty half built buildings. Broken against the sky.

There you go, all done! Too tired to read this back for typos, apologise if there are any/many. I will post again soon with details of academic things hopefully, my thoughts on my PhD proposal etc. Thanks for reading!
Hanxx

2009-03-17T23:43:00.010Z

A Very Quick Post

Hello all, apologies for not posting a bit sooner, but I've been gallivanting around Leicestershire on a shoestring budget (and more bottles of red wine than is strictly sensible). Thanks again to all the friends who had me stay, fed me, and generally entertained me, was lovely to see Lucy and MorpheanRamble, Robin Johnson, and my friend Jon, who is unfortunately backward and does not blog so I cannot link him (thinking of it, he should totally do a book review blog. I will tell him this). So yes, a lovely weekend of catching up with all my friends, a nice meal out with Tapas, which I've never had before. People seem surprised at this, but Lincolnshire is a bit... behind in terms of culture, when I grew up there, there was only one curry and one Chinese place in the area. And you didn't get the same kind of curry and Chinese they do elsewhere, added swede or something probably. But yes, Tapas rules! And then the next day was a lovely day of board games (scrabble mainly, a record game and a very worthy adversary) Rock Band, movies, and, as previously mentioned, more than a wise amount of red wine.

And then Monday, my PhD meeting. Not much to talk about that really, Dan Watt at Loughborough Uni is as brilliant as ever, was nice to catch up, and, believe it or not, really nice to be back in Loughborough. The world was conspiring towards it though with a gorgeously sunny day, and freshly cut grass smells wafting around me as I walked in to the university (from the outskirts to the centre of the town in about 20 minutes. I love that). I've decided that my proposed thesis will be titled Theatre and Technology. And I think will look at both the use of technology in improving/changing access to theatre and the theatrical experience itself, as well as the way theatre writing approaches how technology is changing our daily experiences/communication. I did mention before how I wanted to write something that pulled in Feminism too, and this definitely will as I intend the thesis to look at the potential for technology in democratising, and bringing in the experience of the Other (IE non white-middle-class-developed-country-male) and how that is written into, and used in the making of theatre. I'm also going to be combining practice (a body of creative writing/performance) in order to test my theories, and make sure I officially have dedicated writing time available to me, formally speaking. I'm thinking of doing a 60:40 theoretical:practical split, which I think will suit my intentions nicely. I'll try and post my ideas (for the 500 word or so proposal itself) as they develop. I also have to come up with a suggested bibliography, all of which is a bit weird because it will all change a great deal as I actually start getting through it all. But there we go. Hoops must be jumped as I am applying for the single studentship that the department has to offer. The deadline is April, and I should find out in May. I'm basically screwed if I don't get it, because all of the humanities' block grants were allocated elsewhere. So yes, tough competition. Dan seemed to think I had a good chance, and I know that Loughborough know me still (there was a big furore about my dissertation A Feminist Theatre Manifesto for the Developing World, I was awarded 84 (I think) in the end, but that happened because the external moderators were demanding that the mark was raised, and some of the department thought that no undergrad work should ever be awarded that high a mark (So I'm told, and I'm making that way more dramatic than it probably was, but yes, smarm smarm)). So, hopefully my work throughout the BA will mean that I'm not a strange name. Fingers crossed eh? I know you're always supposed to have a plan B, and there are probably several, but I want this studentship so very much, I really do. I kind of want to be happy again, and feel that a combination of financial security, nearby countryside, friends in close proximity, and time to think and do something I love will help me be that.

So yes. Must get on, work tomorrow, and I'm always a zombie on the first day of the three I work because of my appalling sleep patterns. Thanks for reading, and wish me luck!

2009-03-04T22:15:00.001Z

I am annoyed. Please read.

Please comment on this if you have read it, you don't have to talk about it, I just honestly want to know if anyone reads these things. I know it's long. But this is important to me. And I hope to you too.

First off I think I should say that I'm posing a question, but I don't want a debate. That's pretty sucky of me I know... but I kind of think that people, once reading the facts, and the links, will have an opinion either way, and that almost always, you wont be able to change that. My experiences on many message boards, blogs, and comment threads have proved this. You have trolls, and you have stalactites and stalagmites, one refuses to let go of his/her ill founded beliefs, nitpicks at semantics, and the other uses strength of argument, and generally credible rhetoric, but has an opposing view. I have never seen anyone change their mind through force of argument. however well substantiated. I write this, instead that it reaches people who have not yet made their minds up. If this does not convince you, further discussion certainly wont.

Posted here: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/04/amnesty-uks-internat.html was a short piece asking for support for the 1 in 10 campaign being run bby Amnesty, which aims to raise awareness about violence against women, and the severe lack of provision for support. The comment thread is the essay part. Largely consisting of people dismissing that 1) statistics prove anything 2)that male violence against women is a problem because men are subject to violence too 3) that because of this, gendered violence should not be campaigned against, because it is 'divisive'. and 4) that 'violence' is considered by statistics to count silly little things like arguments and verbal abuse, oh and the evergreen 5) it's bad, but men evolved that was so what can we do about it?

This is what I posted.

The website the campaign links to, map of gaps, lists the following as it's definition of 'violence':
* domestic violence
* rape and sexual violence
* forced marriage and 'honour'-based violence
* trafficking and sexual exploitation
* stalking
* sexual harassment
* sexual abuse of girls
* female genital mutilation

And the leaflet at http://www.mapofgaps.org/docs/map_of_gaps_summary.pdf actually provides a lot of answers RE why specialist services are necessary etc.

I would also add I don't think that this discussion has been 'divisive' in a negative way- rather a demonstrative one, it appears (I could be wrong) to have split down quite even gender lines, ie the only voices criticising have been those defending male privilege - deflecting by mentioning violence against men etc. (though men have defended also)

As @13strong and others have pointed out better than I shall, different and malign forces deeper in society cause gendered violence. And besides, there are plenty of campaigns against football violence, racism and violence, homophobic violence, and young kids knifing themselves, these things cannot all be solved by the same methods, but no one ever calls them on their 'divisive' attitude by criticising their lack of focus on other forms of violence do they?

Oh and the guy using evolution to justify male violence, you helped me fill in another bingo square
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d98/sabotabby/evopsychbingo.jpg

Statistics are an important way of communicating information, and unfortunately (I feel) have an unjust reputation for fakery. Check the source, if it's a large body, their methods are sound, and they are honest about their facts, trust them to a sensible degree I say.

So here's a statistic I just researched, and their sources: say you have a class of 30 girls. In their lives 10 will be subject to gendered violence.

sure by using the 'young girls' image I am inviting ideas of innocence, vulnerability etc. But that's just good campaign tactics. How else are you to get people to listen?

Let's try it differently then.

1 in 3 females in the UK will be subject to gendered violence in their lifetime.

The 1 in 3 figure I used was a 2% rounding up of the addition of the 23% of women who experience (and report) sexual assault as an adult and the 5% of women who experience (and report) rape. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/Sexual-violence-action-plan The rounding up was just to get a easily divisible figure, and should be very easily exceeded by the puported amount of un-reported assult/harrassment (40% of adults who are raped tell no one about it - http://www.rapecrisis.org.uk/myths.html).

The 1 in 10 is a current figure being run for international women's day by Amnesty International from a campaign by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the End Violence Against Women coalition http://www.mapofgaps.org/ and http://www.oneten.org.uk

I think it's drawn from the 6-10% women per YEAR who are subject to violence(as of 2002)statistic found in the supporting evidence here: http://www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic-violence-articles.asp?section=00010001002200410001&itemid=1280&itemTitle=Statistics%3A+how+common+is+domestic+violence

The lifetime statistic is 1 in 4.

Oh and the male figures are provided there too:
"45% women and 26% men had experienced at least one incident of inter-personal violence in their lifetimes. (Walby and Allen, 2004) "

so surely, demonstrably, it is a problem?

I'm hoping that all of those links etc. make my point transparent - there is real evidence that this is a problem. Yes other problems exist. But this is one too. so why not give it your support?

Once, in discussion about the appalling state of gender inequality in this country someone used the argument 'well yes, if you're going to use *facts*, *facts* can prove anything' against me. If your criticism denies substantiated statistics there's no debating with you. You're never going to know all of the method of the information gathering. How else do you suggest we prove something needs tackling?

That's going to be all I say on this matter, sorry if it's seemed meandering. These kind of things normally get me unduly stressed and upset because there seems to be such a ridiculous and unfounded resistance to anything that talks about gender-based injustices. Yes that gives you little way to enter into dialogue/redress. I'm sorry. I just think that perhaps agreeing that violence against anyone is A Bad Thing. And supporting a campaign aiming to help a group of victims is not.

Over and out.

My post got deleted. Could have been a mistake, or my unwillingness to debate.

Why am I posting here? I don't know. I bloody care about it. And I find it odd that seemingly logical people deny that gender inequality, object culture, and that violence against women either occur, or are a problem in comparison to other things.

In the UK

one in three women will be raped or sexually assaulted in their lifetime

one in ten women are subject to seriously sexual or (physical) domestic abuse every year

For every £1 of income received by the average man, the average woman receives 54p (2004)

Just over 5% of rapes reported to the police in 2004 ended in a conviction.(this figure was 33% in 1975)

women make up only 20% of MPs

And the UK was severely criticised last year for its treatment of and discrimination against women: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/un-says-sexual-discrimination-is-rife-in-britain-915800.html

(facts not substantiated above are sourced from here: http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/documents/Fawcett%2030%20years%20full%20-%20low.pdf)

Sure there are other issues out there. but this is one too. I also campaign against human rights abuses and for the environment and I find that people rarely accuse their causes of using fabricated statistics, or of making a big deal about nothing, or of concentrating on one problem, when many others exist.

Why is this?

2009-02-28T16:55:00.004Z

Contact.

Hello all again. I'm still trying to get at least one blog a week in, so here's this week's entry. I do think that blogging actually does help me organise my thoughts, as well as help friends and family far away catch up with me, so though my blog is quite a little read one (in terms of the interweb as a whole) I still think it's a really good tool. Keeps me limbered up.

So yes, until yesterday I had very little to put in here, but over the past 24 hours all manner of things have been happening (don't get too excited, nothing massive) so I shall get on with it, in a semi-chronological order.

So last night I went to see the Hounding of David Oluwale. I thought that overall it was a very good piece, in terms of the writing, it was a brilliantly structured and inventive way of adapting the story of David Oluwale. The set was good, but I felt that it wasn't useful enough, they pulled bits out, and changed it, and used different levels, but some of that felt forced (particularly a scene in a car that I wont go into, but skated a very thin line with the audience's suspension-of-disbelief). I'm not entirely sure how that could have been remedied though, I think I just wanted it to be more fluid - it was static but could move, it didn't look as if it was meant to. And then there was the performances. All in all the cast of 8 (6m 2f) did very well with the variety of parts and ages. I thought the two women particularly, although mostly playing bit parts, had a wonderful degree of subtlety. The two central performances on the other hand are my biggest bugbear with the piece. I felt (and perhaps this was because it was the end of the run at the REP) that it was all a bit over-practiced. A bit hammy. Towards the end this made sense, in extreme emotion and story-telling, but I missed the journey to that point. The main inspector seemed a little too much like a character built of gestures, (and actually, in general, a little too moral to be true), and David Oluwale himself, although definitely very convincing towards the end, seem to switch all of a sudden, for no big reason. This is a bit of a nitpicking comment really, as it really is a very good, powerful piece. I just think the piece would have been all the more grounded had the physical ticks David develops had each stemmed from a visible moment - I.E. if a staff to the leg caused his bad knee, if the shock therapy caused the twitch of his head, if each of the wrongs done to him further degraded him, and made his pride a more and more ridiculous thing. The piece finished with real power, however, as a David Oluwale, whole, as a younger man stares at his misspelled grave, and the inspector reads the painfully lenient verdicts against the two police officers who hounded him. David takes the papers gently off the disappointed inspector, and reads the judges comments, looking at the two men, standing facing the audience. That direct eye contact draws the action out, reminds us that this play exists in a public sphere, and that we should bear witness, lest this kind of thing be allowed to continue.

Just to finish on The Hounding ... with a couple of other small points, my dad was in the police for about 35 years, so I grew up meeting quite a few of them, I missed out on that (horrible) low level disdain your average working to middle class person has for them (which always confused me, I'm sure the police would be the first people they called should anything untoward happen to them.) So I approached this piece from a slightly more... delicate angle. It hurt to see the uniform doing that kind of thing, though of course I know it happens. As I grew older I think I could kind of see that two kinds of man joined the police; those who liked helping people (and liked the idea of a public sector pension) and those who liked hurting people. I remember leaving a police 'do' in Lincolnshire (probably late 80s early 90s) with my family, who had walked out because of the racist jokes of the comedian they had booked. I don't idolise the police, and I do know that (like society in general) the police used to be a lot more racist, sexist, homophobic and generally prejudiced than it is now. I think the race thing has improved, I'm not sure about the other two.  The Hounding presented people at extreme ends of the scale, this is drama, that is how you generate dramatic characters. But I think I would have liked to see more of the man inspecting the abuse/murder of David Oluwale, as a little more grey, a little more, perhaps, of the police service now, struggling with its future as well as its past.

The racism/sexism scene was perfectly shown in one small, and otherwise insignificant scene. A black officer, a female officer, and two white male officers are in the office. The female officer is only spoken to to be asked 'make us a cup of tea, love', she sighs, and generally stomps off. But knows this is her Job. The black officer is spoken to like a child throughout, and then, also asked to make a cup of tea. He looks unsure, and then meekly follows the order. He doesn't know what his job is. He just knows that he has do everything expected of both a man, and a lesser man (woman). She knows there will be no change, he doesn't even know what the state of affairs is to begin with. Later on he is promoted, and she leaves the force and has a baby.

Interesting, no? Superb writing though. Do go see it if it's coming near you.

So yes, onto other exciting things! I have had 3 messages today, all full of exciting things! Firstly I had an email from Script Yorkshire, who I applied for a 1 day a week tech job with, they said I wasn't close enough (fair enough) but have since been in contact with me about their wanting to set up a North Lincolnshire branch! I got an email about a conference today, I unfortunately can't afford to go to it, but that they're staying in touch is promising at the least. Secondly I got a lovely email from Catharine Ashdown the new literary associate at Theatre Writing Partnership. She dropped me a line to say that she'd had a quick read of Being Someone Else (the virtual reality play) and thought it had lots of potential - and she told me about a conference happening at De Montford Uni in Leics about Sci-Fi writing. I had known about this because the lovely Lucy works there, but alas I (again) can't afford to go (it's £65 for the day). I replied, thanking her for letting me know, and saying I was redrafting the piece this week, and she likes the direction I'm think of going for the redraft, and sounded eager to know what becomes of it, so that's good! Also, Kate Chapman, who was a producer for BBC Radio Drama, and also directed some of the pieces at the MphilPlaywriting Studies showcase, has been appointed CEO/Director of TWP. Which is excellent news. Kate is lovely, very switched on, and an excellent director. It's really good to see TWP getting back on it's feet since the Esther/Sarah handover, and I shall be glad to move back East and start getting involved with them again. And Thirdly (finally) after hearing of all these excellent conferences I can't afford to go to I tweeted my general dismay, and to my delight got an extremely kind offer from Marcus at Pilot Theatre. Pilot Theatre are a brilliant company based in York who are running a two-day conference in June about technology in theatre, some really big name theatres/critics/writers etc. there. Shift Happens 2.0 will take in all aspects of the use of tech in theatre, from live streaming and social networking, to genuine interactivity with the creative and performative processes. The conference is happening in York, costs £100 including lunch and an evening bbq on day on and lunch and breakfast on day 2. Bearing in mind I'm considering applying to do a PhD in theatre and technology, this is definitely Of Interest. So yes, Marcus from Pilot Theatre is on my twitter account, and sent me a PM offering me a free two day pass, and my travel paid in exchange for helping out at the thing! I'm going to get involved in streaming the event, live tweeting of the different speeches/presentations, and editing together a 'best of' kind of thing at the end of it all. And for that I get to go to the whole thing FOR FREE! How amazing is that? Really brilliant. They're even offering to pay for my travel ^_^

So yes, all round a good day for making contact.

Oh, I have also managed to get a painting commission! A canvas portrait for a gift, nothing too flashy, and from a photograph £50-75ish. Not bad :-)

So finally (I know this has been a long one so I shan't go on) The Big Redraft. I am using up some of my annual leave to take the next week off work, with the intention of doing a 'new document' (IE blank slate) redraft of Being Someone Else. Lots of ideas bubbling away, I intend to give Monday-Friday over to it and see what happens. The general direction I'm going is much more claustrophobic, close, and more confusing. I'm going to try and make it muddier in all respects, in terms of morality and reality. I want the audience to sometimes not know what 'reality' (real or virtual) they're in. So yes. We'll see!

And on that, I should really get on! I want to get my website up to date, and generally prettier tomorrow, and today have a bit of thought to put into a short story submission. Before getting down to it on Monday. So yes. Onwards!

xx

2009-02-24T19:34:00.011Z

Creative Projects.

So yes, now these two things have been given out as presents I can finally blog about them. The painting is a small one (about as small as I can go, really) something like 8x10", and was done for my dad's birthday (he likes birds of prey). The other was a scarf knitted from 3 balls of grey yarn, all 100% wool, with some neon shades thrown in. The design was mostly dark grey with a vertical panel of lighter grey on one side (15st in lt gr, 30 in dk gr), with thin double lines of the two neon colours every 24 rows. And who doesn't love pom poms? Actually, me. 12 pom poms practically took me 6 hours. Anyway, you get to see me modelling the scarf in my pyjamas. Enjoy.

(sorry about the dull colours on the scarf, but the flash was just way too harsh.)

Future creative projects include using ends of yarn to do some more baby clothes for sprogged up friends, and finding people to buy paintings off me. Any ideas for general paintings that could sell well? Answers on a post card...

2009-02-22T13:18:00.004Z

These Four Streets

As promised, here I am blogging about some of the free theatre I've been to see. Contributing to the general discussion is probably the least I can do in exchange! So I went to see the REP's These Four Streets on Friday. The piece was drawn from the events surrounding the riots in Birmingham in 2005 it started out with about 30 writers workshopping the ideas, and turned into 6 female writers working together to fictionalise characters and situations based on verbatim accounts. I think it's worth noting how rare it would be that 6 female writers could be found in the same place anywhere (which is why it's made a point of in all of the literature) and I'm intrigued as to whether that was an active choice, or just the way things happened. I did feel a little like possibly at one point someone had gone 'we are all women, we should be careful this story does not become female centric', this could be entirely wrong, it is just my impression, (but my impression is worth just as much as the next persons :-)) however I did feel like the male voice was over-compensated for, and in the end, a story that started from a rumoured rape didn't even begin to tackle the aspect of urban tribe property/belongings (and how women fit into that) and how that relates to belonging to a place, and rather drew its emotional centre from the death of a young boy. This was one of the main problems with the whole thing though- unfinished stories. The piece had 6 actors covering over 30 characters, most of which you saw only once, and at most, twice. Normally a fractured narrative is united by the telling- by the writers voice, however because this series of snapshots was contributed to by 6 writers it needed more than the bookend device of several voices saying 'these four streets, I live here etc.'.

Having said that, I still think this piece was much better and more interesting than Don John. Don John was the skeleton of a story stretched out for far too long, and far too flabbily (good word). These Four Streets on the other hand was just so much, so many stories, the main problem being that they didn't have enough of an airing. Not necessarily by doing less, but by looking at things with more depth - asking questions more, of their characters, of the audiences. I think the best compliment I could give the piece is that it really made me want to write a play about the subject material, and it was an important story, that deserved exploration. I was listening to the conversations around me, and it seemed most of the people were local people who hadn't been to the theatre before, the audience as a whole was probably at least 50% black, and it sounded like a lot of them were there because it was about them. As I left a young girl was crying about a friend who had been killed. This was theatre talking directly to a people about their own lives, which is very basically what I believe theatre should be. It was flawed, but because of all the right reasons.

It was also performed with tact and a lovely light touch (in fact Bharti Patel and Lorna (can't remember second name) have both worked with Foursight, and Lorna was an actor with the MPhil showcase) and the direction made the most of the difficult structure and storytelling.

So yes, those are my quick thoughts. I've got a billion other things to do so I wont do an in depth dissections, but if you have any questions or comments, will be very interested to hear them.

It's The Hounding of David Oluwale this Friday- a WYP co-production I think, in the main house, so stay tuned for my reaction to that.

Thanks for reading :-)
Hanxx

2009-02-14T13:14:00.002Z

Forward

So here I am, next post! Only a bit more than a week after the last one, so I'm doing OK! I am going to try and post a few more regular blogs in the coming weeks though, because ACE (Arts Council England, who, if you're of the uninitiated - the arts world sort of hates in the same way a mardy teenager hates their parents, not without reason but conveniently forgetting the good bits) have introduced a new scheme called A Night Less Ordinary which gives free tickets to under 26s. All you do is phone up the box office of one of the many, excellent, participating theatres, say for what performances you would like tickets and when, provide email and a mobile number, and then it's all done! So yes, I have tickets to upcoming productions of Don John by Kneehigh, These Four Streets, a play written by 4 local female writers about the riots in Birmingham a few years ago, and The Hounding of David Oluwale. All of which look really interesting. I'm really excited, and despite a small amount of guilt for using the offer, as it's clearly not aimed at already theatre going young people (though my big problem has always been affording to go), I think it's a brilliant initiative. I just wish more people knew about it, they should def have an advert on Facebook or something- raise awareness. Anyway, all of these upcoming shows mean something to blog about, and a nice bit of critical thinking, which I generally miss, so stay tuned for some mini-reviews. I only wish I lived in London, and could afford to take up the offers there- at the Barbican, the RSC, the National, the Royal Court, SOHO, all of them! (Maybe I'll take a holiday after work is less crazy, find a friend to stay with, and go see lots of free shows).

So yes, what's going on with me? Well last night was the guest night performance of Foursight (the company I do admin for 3 days a week) Theatre's Can Any Mother Help Me? which is going to be touring from now until May. It was really lovely to see something that's been worked on since 2007 come to fruition. It's a devised show, so obviously it will continue to evolve over the run, but everything is definitely in place, and massive congratulations to all of the team! It was also a bit surreal for me, as administrator this show is something that I have been greasing the rails for for my whole time with Foursight, but obviously haven't seen much of the actual creative side, so seeing the show was just lovely. Although my opinions on it should definitely be considered as biased, those who know me, know that I try to always be honest with my criticism, of myself an others, otherwise it's generally useless! So yes, I thought the piece was lovely, very respectful of the fact that it was a book. Adaptation is a strange process - you can use the work as a stimulus, or you can use it as literal material - neither approach is wrong, it's just a choice. This show was more of a literal adaptation of the book, and I think this worked well. There was no larger narrative, as the piece considered a group of over 25 women, from the 1930s, all the way to 1980, these were lives, not narratives, and so the piece sewed together snapshots into a kind of theatrical pop-up book. You retained the well crafted rhetoric of the women's writing, and the piece didn't sink into hysteria and psychology, the telling was simple and faithful, and held together by repeated images, sounds, projection, and lighting. I think the design was nice and simple, but the windows, spots of light etc, reinforced the 'windows into worlds' as well as letters/book feel which was good. The performances were all very strong too. It did take about 20 minutes for me to get used to the non-narrative style, and at the outset, it took me a while to care about the characters, but around about halfway through, a combination of design, and warmth of direction/performance drew me sufficiently in. SPOILER --- One of the women's stories is sort of a thicker thread than the others - that of Isis, Isis falls in love with a Dr X, though nothing ever happens, eventually she confesses and apologises, Dr X tells her husband, and they both give her electric shock therapy to 'cure' her. Every time we began her story a zip of electricity followed her across the windows to where she was on the stage, close to the end you realise that with that, each memory she spoke of was being erased. She had nothing, and they even contrived to take that from her --- END OF SPOILER The piece definitely needs tightening up in places, and a few of the character's stories suffered a little from lack of time/depth, because of the couple of main focuses, but all in all I enjoyed it. If you get a chance to see it (tour dates can be found here) it would be really interesting to hear what you think!

In writing news I wrote a short story last week and sent it off to a competition. It was nice to flex my prose muscles, and I don't think it was too bad. I got an email from the Royal Court saying that they'll deliver feedback on our submissions in March. And Scary Little Girls Productions got back in contact with me and offered me a longer workshopped reading in a new writing Salon on May the 1st. I'll get a day with a director and a couple of actors, and can work on anything I like, I have a new idea simmering around at the moment, just a two-hander, which it might be nice to try and write 15 mins for, and I also have a redraft of Being Someone Else to get on with, so both of those, as well as Eismas are possibilities. I'm going to have a think about it and get back to them. I also talked briefly about the Irish play commission, and should be meeting to talk a little more about that over the next month or so!

Finally, something that has been ticking over in my mind for a the past year or so may have seen some shifting. Recent contact from one of my brilliant lecturers from Loughborough University about the possibility of doing a PHD. Despite a growing longing for academia I have been reluctant to give it a go because of the fiasco that is applying for funding from the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council). However there have been changes in how it all works and a new 'block grant' system which means the money is doled out to the institutions-and it is they who are now responsible for handing it out to students. I have a lot of questions, I want to know that I could still continue to dedicate as much time to my creative writing as I am, I would want to know that I could work on something that really would hold my interest for three years (somehow combining feminism, theatre theory AND practice and web 2.0), and I could only afford to do it if I got a full grant (fees paid plus £12000 per year). I have mentioned it to people before and they've always asked, 'how could you give up three years of your life like that?' but I really wouldn't see it like 'giving up'-because my plan was always to work flexibly for 3-4 years whilst getting my creative career off the ground. A PHD, for me, would make me feel although I was having a theoretical impact as well as a creative one. Plus £1000 a month is a hell of a lot more than what I live off now, not taking into account hopeful commissions by that point. So yes... many thoughts. And I'm going to go talk with my lecturer about it next month.

I definitely feel like I need to move back East. This side of the country just doesn't sit right with me. And I liked Loughborough, close to many friends, and two major cities, and everything was only 15 minutes away, the library, the swimming pool, Sainsbury's, and most importantly the countryside. There's a direct line to Euston, and good theatres in the vicinity... So yes... another avenue re-opens. It's all quite exciting, this life-choice stuff isn't it?

:-)

Hxx

2009-02-03T22:15:00.003Z

Limbo

First off- let me apologise for the longer than normal gap in blog entries, without the routine of the Royal Court keeping my writing progression regular, finding a time to sum up more disparate happenings is harder. Here I am though, ready to give you a decent update, so let's go!

A few interesting things have happened writing wise since I last posted - obviously I've had a few more rejection letters, I sent off a pack of 15 submissions about May/June time last year, so this is the kind of time that most of the replies will happen. A couple of thanks but no thanks from competition submissions, pretty standard, but also a really lovely letter from Esther Richardson (previously from Theatre Writing Partnership where I did my first ever playwriting) who's now at the Soho, accompanied by an extremely positive and useful readers report about Being Someone Else, which will be really helpful in draft 4 (it really is an epic of an idea, and is still searching for the right format, let alone anything else).

I've sent off a few more submissions over the past few days, a couple of ideas to the Red Ladder treatment development opportunity, two plays to an IdeasTap/Theatre503 initiative and obviously I'm waiting for feedback from the Royal Court.

I was also contacted (or re contacted-some emails junked somewhere I think) by Box of Tricks Theatre Company, who want to meet up with me and talk about my work- the pieces they have are positively ancient -Cloud and 2112, I've moved on a great deal from then, so hopefully that's positive. I also have a new idea for a two hander, which it would be lovely to talk to them about. My meeting with them is at the Young Vic on Monday the 16th of Feb.

And there was also the Scary Little Girls Salon! Amongst London snow, via my first experience of the London bus network (a bendy bus too - the 73!), and despite the tfl website's crappy maps with no road names and big red dot that marks where you get off, but doesn't actually provide you with a stop name - I made it just in time. Thanks to the bus driver who actually pulled over to help me work out where I was. So yes, the Bodrum Cafe was a really sweet venue, just the right size, an intimate audience, I don't say that as a euphemism for 'small' it was a good size, but not too scary, and everyone was really supportive and open to new things. It was a really refreshingly different feel to the normal 'death by networking' that these things often tend towards. There were some lovely pieces; short stories, music, play extracts, a comedian, poems. The sections I chose for a reading were scenes 1 and 2, and scene 13 from Eismas. As a fresh first draft I really wanted to hear it, see how it felt in front of an audience, so I chose the opening, and then a more revelatory, emotional scene at the end of Act I. There were some really interesting reactions, particularly a couple of really quick reversals, a line that got a big laugh, followed by a very dark line which even got a little gasp! I love the idea of making an audience feel guilty for their reactions- it implicates them, and attaches them more to the story- makes it more relevant. I think that implication is key to effective political theatre ... (though political theatre is a difficult thing to define itself, surely all theatre is political?). Anyway, despite that I had to dash off to get the train back Brum-ways, quite a few people came up to me to say it really intrigued them as I was leaving. Now I need to develop the piece to really work with that intrigue. Anyway, big thanks to Scary Little Girls for the opportunity, and my wonderful actors too, Dominic and Ona were played just right. There was a photographer at the event, so I shall see if I can get hold of a few shots.

I've also been reading about the women involved in the Easter Uprisings, a book by Margaret Ward, and one by Sinead McCoole. It was this commission which I contacted SLGP about originally. I was going to chat to Rebecca (the director of SLGP) about it on Sunday, but the event overran a little and I had to rush off to Euston. Really thrilling and heart-wrenching stuff. though, and some astounding characters too, think it would be a massive and fascinating undertaking.

My website is due for renovation soon - Lycos hosting has ceased business, so I'm in a right muddle trying to transfer my domain over to a new provider (Strato), who keep requesting the domain to no avail. I've phoned the 12p per minute Lycos help line many times over many days and it's always just an engaged message so I'm a bit stuck. Eventually there will be some downtime (though not of the blog, obviously) and then I should be able to move everything to Strato. I may think about making the site a bit simpler. There's too many links I think, too many buttons to all of the plays. I think I may collate into one page with links to download PDF extracts. I considered a 'news' section, do you think that would be a good thing to have? I mean the blog sort of suffices, a news section would just be a lot more succinct. I may also sort out Painting and Drawing to include some kind of commission info. so yes, a general shake up, the next time I have a couple of days. Should be fun!

Finally, I'm really enjoying the microblogging, it's nice to just do on the go, and you honestly feel a part of something too - a feeling you don't often get so much with other social networking options. @stephenfry is currently trapped in an elevator, and just tweeted a very sweet picture of him and all his fellow trap-ees, and @Dave_Gorman recently wondered out loud after some new vegetarian recipes, and got very many in reply! The tweets around Obama's inauguration were fascinating, and the #Londonsnowfail hilarious. I definitely recommend it, you can follow my tweets via my facebook status, to the left of this blog, or via twitter itself, where I am @hannahnicklin.

Right, time to go methinks- at work tomorrow, a short week or so until we begin previews for Foursight's new touring production, needless to say - all a bit crazy! So think I will try and actually get my 8 hours tonight. I should have some pictures for you soon, hopefully some of the Salon, and also a scan of the painting I've done for my dad's birthday, which you can have a look at after it's handed over!

Oh and the blog title 'limbo' is just a reference to that ongoing state of almost breaking through which I'm living in at the moment, not complaining, just part of trying to make a living in the arts. Onwards! (Hopefully).

Thanks for reading, if you have any good ideas for website renovation, let me know.

Hanxx

2009-01-18T13:58:00.004Z

Picture

This was one of the Christmas presents I did, so I've only been able to post it now. Slightly darker pencil work than I usually do- less defined, but I still like it I think...

2009-01-18T12:48:00.007Z

Once More into the Breach...

So here we go, another year of trying to make it as a professional writer, and as twenty-something too - I mean there's the make a career in the arts during global economic meltdown and the expected cuts throughout the sector, but then there's the whole find a city I want to live in, earn enough that I'm not living off £4 a week, manage to get out of the world of house shares, and work out a stable relationship/local friends... I know I only finished uni like half a year ago, but I want to get a start on at least some of this soon! I miss university today, undergrad uni that is. You spend uni making some really good friends, not realising that before long you're going to be spread out at different ends of the country, none of you with enough money to travel to visit more than twice a year or so.

I definitely don't want to stay in Wolverhampton, even if it just means moving to Birmingham for a bit. It's rubbish here, there's almost zero culture, and no-one my age, it's either locals, or Wolves university students, who for the most part are locals, or other people who wanted to go to one of the worst (3rd from bottom last year) universities in the country. Yes, I know, intellectual snobbery, but it's not that that bothers me, I'm sure just as many people are clever and talented (the arts part of Wolverhampton is reasonably well renowned for example) its more...lack of ambition. That sounds horrible, and is by no means exclusive to Wolverhampton, but more generally I think one of the most important things I identify with in others is ambition- making things happen instead of talking about them. Trying and ignoring the fear of failure. I can't speak with real authority on Wolves students, but I've yet to meet one who had much passionate to say for themselves (there are, of course, exceptions to this)... Though that might not be these people in particular, there's always the idea that this is a generational thing, kids at uni now could be 6-7 years younger than me, these are people who have grown up with the internet, during a massive period of economic and political stability, with the worst things to happen far away, or in the form of middle class anxiety... Massive, sweeping generalisations I know, not fair, but I still can't help feel a mix of nihilistic apathy, people-as-consumer-entities, middle class security vibe emanate from much of these kids at university today. Might as well get the pipe and slippers ready! That paired with how much you really change after you leave university leaves me just as unable to speak to them as them to me... this reflects badly on me, I know, but it doesn't half leave you feeling isolated in a town with few people your own age to talk to.

So, how to remedy this? Fair enough it's rubbish, but I'm the only one who can change this, so let's look at how. 1) I need more money, well, I'm working on that. I will go into it further on, but I am beginning to get places with a couple of creative routes, which is excellent, and I am learning to rein in my spending a little, food budgets etc. I've not bought a bottle of wine for a long time, or spend more than £1.50 on a block of cheese. Morale is accordingly low, but I can do things like pay my bills, so that's ok. Problem number 2) I don't like where I live, well, I have started applying for jobs elsewhere, Leicester, Leeds, London, Manchester, places I have friends, and where stuff if going on. I don't expect to get a job for a few months as I am specifically applying for theatre jobs, ideally literary ones, so it's quite tough competition, ideally I should be moving around summertime, that way I've not screwed with Foursight, and I can try and save some money to make the move smoother. And hopefully this move, will either be to a bedsit (I don't care if it's a box, as long as it's my box, and there's no arguements about whose turn it is to take out the rubbish), or a two person shared flat - preferably with a friend, but just to make it fewer than 6 in a house would be nice! and that means that 3) I would then be in a more cultural, happening city, and meeting more people, making friends, finding a local feminist movement, (Manchester and London are good for that) going to see some theatre, etc etc.

So there you go. That's the plan, I've set my mind to it now, so watch this space...

And for career plans - there's not a great deal you can plan, for writing, you can just keep working hard writing and submitting and hope that you fit into someone else's plan. Having said that, I do have some promising things on the radar this year and had an excellent meeting with a production company last week, so things are looking OK. Scary Little Girls Productions are a really cool multi-artform theatre company who do mixed up Riot Grrl cabaret, electro and jazz recordings, straight up theatre productions, site specific work, ghost stories, comedy and poetry. They're a really exciting female-led matrifocal company, at the forefront of this generation's feminist performance. As mentioned in a previous post I originally wrote to them about their Medals of Lead commission - a piece they want to develop on the women who played a massive part in the 1916 uprising in Ireland, and in the Irish Nationailst/Socialist movement and yet have been scandalously left out of much of the official history. I met with Kate Hughes the Literary Associate of SLGP non Thursday, and she was absolutely lovely, they're really interested in my work, content and style, I have a reading in a new writing 'Salon' that they're running in London on the 1st of Feb, where I'll also get a chance to talk to the director of the company (Rebecca Morden) about the Irish project (it's a huge 2 year research led historical epic, so it's really important that I'm right for her, and she right for me) which is excellent stuff, and the hint of perhaps a first professional production. And then finally, I'm also contributing the main art work for an album cover. I've been comissioned to paint Kate's picture for a jazz album she's working on. Kate and Rebecca saw my artwork on my website (which I had hitherto thought was a bit of a vanity corner) which has led to this comission! Exciting stuff, my first professional piece of art, which I should be working on in the first week of February.

In other writing news, I finished the first draft of Eismas, and sent it off to the Court. I didn't like doing that, weird to send off a first draft, but hey ho-it's at the point I really need some distance/outside work on it right now, so hopefully the Court will see that, and just maybe invite me back to do more work... fingers crossed. Also, Foursight might have a bit of work for me as varbatim scriptor on their current devised piece, it might be a bit of extra cash if they want me out of my normal 3 days a week, and it's also an excellent experience/thing for the CV.

I'm also really enjoyng the microblogging thing, really interesting people you can follow, and I like that I can do it easily on the move. Do give it a go if you've not before, there's lots of good phone apps for it, and you can sync it with your facebook status and lots of other fun things. You can follow me here.

So yes, all in all, there's a lot on the horizon this year, it's my first full year as a real person, and I really need to start making the most of things, not hesitating, and just going for what I want.

Here goes!

(Thanks for reading) Hanxx

2009-01-08T19:03:00.004Z

New Year...

So, yes, here we are, the first blog of 2009! It will, I'm afriad, be a rushed one, as always I'm low on time, and also not feeling brilliant (cold coming I think) so apologies for garbling...

So, a few pretty good/hopefully things have happened or will happen in the new year with regards to writing, which I really, really need – 1) so I know there’s good reason for me to carry on trying and 2) because my money situation is getting extremely, extremely dire. If something hasn’t happened by about May/June time I’m going to have to start working full time, maybe even move home and work full time for a few months to just inject a bit of cash into my situation... then move to... well one of two places- Leicester or London. And I do want to move. I don’t like Wolverhampton. So it’s either London for writing (if I sell a play this year then that’ll be what I use the money for- to move down there), or Leicester for friends - and I think at that point I’d consider applying for a PHD...

But yes! I should tell you about the possible opportunities. Well , the first is this play I’ve been writing with the Royal Court Young Writers’ Programme – I’m currently redrafting the piece which is due into them on the 15th of January – which, if they like they might offer me a place in the ‘invitation’ group (which means more trips to London) where basically they develop a second draft with you and you meet lots of famous writers and important directors who work on it with you, or if they actually love it, they could commission a second draft, or actually programme it... so that’s pretty good- just need to make my piece good (what I should be doing now in fact)! The other big thing that’s happening is also on Jan 15th I’m meeting the literary manager at Scary Little Girls Productions – just before Christmas I was just trawling the web on my lunch break and came across the fact that they were looking to commission a playwright to write a piece about the women involved in the Easter uprisings of 1916 in Ireland- which sounds bloody interesting- and combining research with writing- which I would love! So on the off chance they wouldn’t simply laugh at me for my lack of experience/previous commissions, I sent a cover letter explaining why I thought I’d be perfect for it, along with a couple of examples of my writing, and they phoned me back a week later to arrange a meeting! Apparently they’re also thinking of working on a new writing season and would like to have a chat about my writing and the commission, as well as the new writing season – so, fingers crossed. Oh and the final thing that might happen is that Loughborough University phoned me up and asked me if I was interested in taking a piece (writing and directing I think) to a European and Mediterranean arts festival in Macedonia, I don’t think it would pay, but I think it would be paid for-and as well as being a great opportunity, it would look good on the CV.

So yes, fingers crossed very hard that at least something will happen this year, I need the money, but I also need the reassurance that I’m not wasting my time...

Also due to extreme lack in time at the moment - I'm giving microblogging a go. I've signed up to twitter and have added an app to my phone and facebook so I'll be able to update both fbook status and twitter on the go. I'm super busy until January, so if lacking main updates - look to the left!

Hope all had a good Christmas break, and here's hoping 2009's the one!

Hxx

2008-12-16T19:16:00.003Z

Last One.

So- that's it! Finished... very weird. First drafts to hand in to the Royal Court on the 15^th, some other writing stuff looking nice and promising (though not holding my breath!) and I can finally maybe not be quite so poor without all of the travelling – oh and the time! 2 days a week back to do stuff with. I have a lot of stuff bubbling away in my brain at the moment- particularly a radio idea which I may start work on after the 15^th of Jan- and then see if I can get in contact with the producer I know at the BBC to talk it over... so all in all I'm feeling nice and positive. Just about. It fluctuates so much -and is bound to take a dip when I get into redrafting – though having said that- this redraft should be a lot less stressful than Being Someone Else – I can see the problems, and it's a simpler idea, so hopefully it should feel good- honing it into a more demonstrative form! But, yes, the Royal Court YWP has been a brilliant experience- to make contact with the London 'scene' – to meet some nice fellow writers, make some friends, have a good reason to write and to keep my brain ticking over! The last session was finished with a really interesting conversation about if and how theatre can change people/the world. Really interesting- just skimmed the surface on it, but so interesting! I love discussing that kind of thing (though I probably came across as a bit odd).

And now it's Christmas! Yay! Love Christmas, looking forward to giving myself a week off, giving out cool presents, and not having to worry about where the food and heat is coming from! Oh and the countryside – miss it so much! Need to go on some nice long walks, maybe even a trip to the Yorkshire coast. Love it! So yes, this may be the last regular blog entry as I leave for home on Saturday the 20^th, so thank you for reading along with me on this small blog journey, and onto the next I say!

Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Hanxx

2008-12-14T15:03:00.002Z

Quick Sketch

Just a quick sketch I did for someone's birthday card, I haven't blogged about last weeks Court session because I haven't really got the time- work is mad, redrafting for the RC going on- plus Christmas preparations and other stresses, so thought I'd put this up. It's ok, very quick, and I've sort of over-romanticised the eyes on purpose- they're a bit bigger than is strictly realistic. Hopefully after the New Year I might be able to afford some oil paints and get back into the swing of painting as well as learn how to use that new medium- here's to hoping. In the meantime a snapshot of my time:

Reading - online PHD prospectuses
Listening to - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Watching - too much House for a hyperchondriac.

2008-12-07T14:03:00.001Z

Just a quick one

People should read this

also...

2008-12-02T12:36:00.002Z

Closing time...

Hello There! So, I am now oficially post rough-draft-1. Finished about an hour long version of the play late Sunday night/early Monday morning, printed off, and duly took it to the Court with me on Monday. So yes... obviously massive things wrong with it and most of it doesn't make sense, but not bad for 2-4 very painful days work!

My main concerns...

Structure- the piece struggled out of one structure (very short scenes) into another, chunkier one halfway through, all of which are structures that I'm new (and thus not sure about how sucessful I can make them) to as before now I’ve always written closed time/space pieces

Characterisatlon. It feels like only Ona has any. I think that Dominic’s journey isn’t clear, and that he and Ona are both currently vying for protagonist- to a degree that serves a purpose and illustrates a journey in itself, and to another, it's just confusing, argh!

Content. Obviously the play is completely different to how i imagined it, this is what happens when you write something- it twists and turns under your gaze as the characters grow and start to make their own decisions (sounds hippy-ish but it really does work like that) Although I think that is to be expected, it now feels like Maria is now tacked on, though I’m not sure how to involve her more. It was going to be a story about women trapped by male expectations but now it's a story about the damage done by commodifying humanity. Also, I still feel passionately about the aims of Sci—Fi theatre, but sometimes the play seemed to just want to be about trafficking-not extrapolated into a single—child future... in which case it's a very different, much grittier, and much more responsible, research heavy piece, none of which I’m afraid of- but it would be good to be able to decide a direction.

Dramatic Action. I felt like there was very little, and too often found myself forcing my characters to speak to fill the page, naturally a product of an intensive first draft, but need to work on heightening dramatic action, and avoiding it being a solely stylistic/genre piece

Form- The piece feels like a one act-er stretched too thin, (from previous experience of this script template, I'd say it was 60-70mins at the minute) does it need more story, or more characterisation? Or does it just need to be a one act play...?

So Yes! Bit scary, but good to have soemthing. We took 3 copies of the script into the Court, and exchanged with two others and the course leaders - in groups of 3 we produce a reader's report of our pieces and discuss them next week- and Leo and Natalie get their feedback as soon as they can.

We also did something really interesting asa whole group- basically each person read out the first 2 pages of their script, and then everyone else wrote down frist reactions/questions etc on a little piece of paper anonymously, they were then shuffled, and handed over to the writer - Leo read out a first draft of his too. So we each left the session with 14 or so pieces of instant reaction to the first moments of our play- which was definitely very helpful! In general my feedback was that the piece was intriguing and full of detail, very vivid in terms of place (can also mean too many stage directions), the one which was clearly the course leader's said it had a great sense of dramatic action and build of tension and that the "dialogue feels authentic and dangerously compelling" which is cool! though obviously some negative points, the most interesting of which was from one of the other class members- who suggested that I be careful the piece doesn't make Georg a 'big-bad-Lithuanian-wolf', and that I could be construed as racist. This person also thought it was set in Lithuania (they said that the UK has brothels too, so in itself maybe I need to be clear that it is the UK in the first few pages) but still a good point- I am concerned about Georg being a stereotype, but I hadn't thought about the implications of his being foreign, he just was- so perhaps something to be aware of? I have been concerned about him being a stereotypical pimp, but then it could be argued that part of being a pimp is playing to stereotype? And how do you be a nice pimp? interesting stuff, and having never knowingly met one myself, might be worth some kind of research (how do I do that?)... food for thought.

So, only two more weeks of London - this feedback session, and then a session on redrafting- then a month to redraft to a solid first draft level and we hand it in ont he 15th of January! Phew!

Oh I also went to the National Portrait Gallery - very cool, saw an awesome portrait of Emmeline Pankhurst which took my by surprise, and quite an astonishing picture following the passing of anti-slavery legislation where black people sit amongst politicians and peers in the 19th century houses of parliment. Stunning, really makes me want to pick up my paintbrush again- it's been a while, I really want to work with oils but I can't afford the paints/brushes/linseed and whitespirit that is required... ho hum!

I also need to earn some money, I'm just too poor. Especially now, around Christmas time... being poor isn't nice :-(

Anyway, take care,

Hxx

2008-11-23T23:16:00.003Z

Draft 1 Blues...

Sometimes I don't half wonder if just sacking it all off and doing a PHD wouldn't be a hell of a lot easier. But that's just the draft 1 blues talking- I don't know enough of my play to be comfortable with it, and I haven't got the confidence and experience to know for certain that I'm traveling in enough of the right direction to find it. I seem to have started writing a love story. So far nothing else has come into it. I know there's lots of stuff simmering away, and it's really good that I'm approaching it character and feelings first, but it's hard to feel like it's going to come together into saying something new, I feel like I'm like trying to give a boulder a transfusion, if you'll let me take the metaphor to an extreme. Ona has become much more bolshie than I remember, well not remember, imagined, in my head, there's a stoicism in her which would make you wonder why she didn't just run away, but I think they keep her drugged a lot. And not every woman that gets trafficked can be a defeated mouse, people react in different ways don't they? I think a lot of why I feel particularly weird with this draft is that before I've been very plot heavy to begin with, and this time, the characters are just talking, getting to know each other, and in a way that makes me feel vulnerable, as a writer certainly, and as a general control freak doubly so! I should really get back to it, think I'll do some on the train tomorrow because that means no internet, and no internet means no hours of endless distractions. In the meantime, do check out the following wonderful things that I have found during hours of procrastination:

Sarah Haskins. She's amazing. Yoghurt, Cars, and Chick Flicks particularily worth a look, but heck, they're only 3 mins long each, and all hilarious.
Outnumbered - back for a second series, and just as brilliantly understated and true as ever, loving yet acerbic semi-devised script, and just the right amount of precosiousness make this worth looking out for
Icanhascheezburger cheers me up, every time
Swearing in Lithuanian - this was technically research, and so I didn't even feel that bad! my favourite? Kad tau ezhys kelnese ishdygtu - 'let the hedgehog appear in your pants'.
Trevor Goose and His Dark Night of Lights - which I'm going to see in Warwick in a couple of weeks "Is it a gig? Is it a panto? Is it a misjudged Danish cabaret? Well, it's all three, as local heroes Talking Birds bring to Warwick Arts Centre a Christmas Show for those who want their festive entertainment skewed and a little bit heartbreaking." Well looking forward to it.

So yes... back to writing I guess, I just struck upon the idea of using seasons, as well as Ona's varying baby-bump, to let you know where you are in the story... might talk more about the struggles of temporal structure another time, but for now,

Adieu,

Hxx

2008-11-18T14:44:00.005Z

London VII

Back from London again, another interesting session – and a trip to the Science Museum (which was awesome, loads to see! Might go back next week). I'm just going to do a short round up of what we did here, plus some other character work I've been doing, because it's getting closer to this weekend now, and more planning is needed! So we did two halves to the session this week- the first half was written, and the second was less so. First exercise was drawing! We were asked to draw the first scene; I struggled for a second or two, trying to decide what I wanted the first scene to be, because I'd only just decided to open up the closed space form into at least 2 more places – the brothel, and a hill. I settled on the first scene being in a room in the brothel for now (where Dominic first meets Ona – see the end of this post for new character info!) and drew away- then we were asked to draw characters, including the contents of their pockets, their clothes, where they're from etc., new/old... see pictures for some of the work. Then we wrote the first 10 lines of dialogue, and then rewrote, trying to garner different reactions from an audience- we had to shock, tickle, educate, bore, excite, intrigue and hypnotise... all very interesting- thinking about impressions of characters and spaces, creating a whole, solid world, and also thinking about how you have a direct effect on an audience- not just a piece of paper, or a story.

Second half was a little bit hippy, but interesting nonetheless- we all lay down, closed our eyes, and Leo talked us through watching our play, really interesting, and good also that you weren't allowed to break out and write things down, watched it a few times and I discovered some key moments, big parts in characters, felt like Dominic was emerging as a lead character- even though he was only a week old- interesting but not necessary a bad thing- as when I thought of his part in the story I definitely felt like it was coming together- so yes, really interesting.

For homework some more interesting stuff – bringing in a small bit of writing from this play (not a problem as I'm writing it this weekend!) watching a film that in some way is influencing your thinking or has something to do with the piece, and burning a soundtrack to it! Having fun, just wish the train journey back wasn't so long... read on for new character stuff.

Characters.

Maria

29, but looks older, f, upper middle class, white. University educated- but has only worked as a secretary - she met her husband at the paper company where he is a director. Maria was her husband's third wife, he left his first wife because she couldn't have children, and he left his second because she gave birth to a girl. Maria's private doctor discovered a rare heart disorder in her unborn child just before its birth, so far he has been housed in a special room and because of the privilege of their healthcare, very few people are allowed to see him, Maria has discouraged her husband from seeing him until he 'recovers'. Maria intends to swap her terminally ill child for a 'black market' baby. She loves her handsome, well kept husband more than anything. Georg was put in contact with her for an extra fee when the doctor informed her of the abnormality and she broke down. The doctor assured her the ill child would be well cared for until he died.

Ona

26, but looks younger, f, working class, Lithuanian. Ona was tricked into the sex trade- her father sold her, though she thought she was going to the UK to study at a university there. She was raped and beaten for weeks by those transporting her in order to make her submissive to her eventual owner, Georg. Ona is strong mentally, though quite slight, and although submissive is prone to attempts at escape, and 'trouble making'. She has been told that she can leave after she has paid her travel costs, she pays her way by selling at least 5 babies. Ona has given away 2 so far, she suffered from post natal infection and depression after the first, and in a fever tried to kill herself. Ona still intends to study. She intends to become a politician or a journalist- to make people aware of the trade – to stop it. She has been talking to a journalist posing as client. She has fallen in love with him.

Georg Bigman

31, m, very good English but hint of Eastern European. New money, flashy, good looking, stubbly, and broad. Georg is a pimp and a trafficker, he came into the business as a client, but spoke to a pimp about it and took interest, he saw much potential in his home-land as an 'un-tapped resource' and began trafficking from Lithuania. He was one of the first pimps to see the opportunity for a baby trade, and has bribed many doctors in on the business. He has many premises which pose as farms. He grew up in small town Lithuania, but inherited his father's land and made life miserable for his tenants until his urge to make more money, and to go west got the better of him.

Dominic

Dominic is a journalist for a well known liberal broadsheet, he is planning to break a massive news story about the corruption at the heart of the baby black market. He has been posing as a client of Georg's brothels- becoming a regular- in attempt to discover what he believes to be the other half of Georg's business. Dominic has, however, fallen in love with Ona. He fell in love with her when he first saw her, and is willing to risk his whole operation in order to get her out.

Plot.

During the meeting to sell Ona's 3^rd child, Dominic plans to create a diversion at the baby farm in order to 'rescue' Ona. However Maria stops her leaving, and Dominic gets caught.

2008-11-17T00:41:00.003Z

Eismas/Traffic

The universe of the play.

Setting – a dilapidated house the midlands (Leicestershire?) a suburb. Also, a hill, surrounded by flooding, and a brothel.

Date – early autumn 2043

So as I said last week – key to the effect of examining now (though whilst still maintaining attachment) through Science Fiction theatre- is sustaining belief- and as well as well founded characters, this means universe – the play's entire socio-politcal history needs to be totally solid, and although it may not appear at any point specifically- it is, in essence, the foundation of the world that your trying to get an audience to buy into- thus it needs to be structurally sound. Sorry for all the building metaphors- my brains a bit mushy after all this socio-politcal thinking... anyway, this is what I have been working on as my next 35 years of history- bringing us up to the date of my new piece- 2043. The following stuff isn't written incredibly eloquently as its more notes for my purpose than anything else, but I thought it might be interesting for you to take a look at my imagining of the world. Everything here is © me by the way (not sure if I would get to sue the world if it actually happened though). So yes, comments on plausibility would be very welcome!

Political context

Following a very close election in 2010, a Tory government got in with an almost unserviceable majority, the labour party dissolved into disarray and infighting, and the Tory government leant further to the right in the ensuing years. Following their defeat, many new labour supporters left the party, or defected to the Lib Dems, leaving an older, more socialist, and crucially, much more out of touch Labour party to remain. Three terms of a narrow Tory Majority followed, with Labour and the Lib Dems fighting for the 'second party' spot, rather than attempting to rival the Tories. During this time the Tories slowly and subtly undermined the NHS; under the guise of 'more choice' NHS customers are encouraged to go private for more expensive treatments with government 'F1rst Aid' – a system which subsidises private healthcare costs and insurance. At the same time immigration is tightened- but no provision for the training of home-grown medical professionals is made. The standard of NHS care falls dramatically, antenatal services, and GP care suffers the most, followed closely by home-care and disability services, which disintegrates into a confusing system of private companies. The North of England and Scotland suffers an obesity epidemic, and smokers, those with a BMI of over 28, and other addicts (alcohol, drugs) are refused NHS treatment. Labour managed to re-unite and claw back a small majority in the 2022 on the basis of reinstating the NHS, and make small reforms. However the biggest change they implement is to throw their lot in with the EU – and in doing so secure valuable loans from Germany, and much needed power from France.

On the 22^nd of July 2015, after increasing terrorist threats, and a small attacks across Europe, a large scale, multi-location terrorist bombing of Europe and Russia, Paris, London, Dublin, Rome, Berlin, Amsterdam, hits within minutes of each other. Evidence leads much of Europe to accuse Russia of funding Islamic Extremists and the relationship between the UK and Russia breaks down. Following the disaster (and due, in part, to America's falling status in the world), the UK finally finds solace in Europe, and the EU member states come together to work on a united anti-terrorist, security strategy. This unprecedented close-working marks a coming together of Europe that moves the EU's focus from trade irrelevancies, to a more global-governance led role. The EU begins to treat the member-states' prime ministers as a kind of cabinet.

At the same time, growing financial difficulty, low yields in home-grown crops because of increasingly unpredictable weather and three years of devastating flooding across the world 2026-2029, has caused global food shortages. The UK government attends EU talks that consider rationing, widespread famine across Africa goes unaided, and the EU calls to power an emergency meeting of the EU leader-states.

In the UK the flooding and widespread animal disease in 2026-2029 (dubbed the Black Summers) causes the Labour government become unpopular, and the Tories win a general election campaign in 2030 based on the idea that Labour is rolling over to EU leaders, and the UK is losing its place as a world leader. However, because the UK now relies so heavily on German loans and French Power, the UK cannot conceivably leave the EU, instead, in the 2031 emergency meeting to discuss food, healthcare, and housing shortages, Britain takes a leading, and some said, purposefully divisive role in talks. The UK demands that living standards, food, power usage etc, be preserved and suggests a revolutionary, yet attractive solution – a single child policy. The EU states eventually decide to implement a one child policy, uniformly across the member states. Though Greece, Bulgaria, and Slovenia leave the EU in protest of it.

This joint decision cements the EU as a collection of united states, and from this point on, trade, movement, and health provision between member states begins to move towards being considered one and the same.

The one child policy

As it is the women that have the children, it is proposed that a woman, rather than a couple, is limited to one child, to prevent people from being promiscuous or 'sharing' families. The single female head of state present (the prime minister of Iceland – now a member of the EU following financial aid decisions made in the 2007-12 financial turmoil) tries to block this but her logic is lost on the other head of states). It also seems logical that a child, more precious in these circumstances, should be able to be provided for to an excellent standard – in terms of education- health, food and welfare- thus the idea of a permit, is reached at. One child per permit-awarded woman. Sterilisation following that child is considered mandatory, and later amendments to the policy included rulings that Infertile couples would not be allowed to undergo fertility treatment, and if a child died, parents are no to be allowed to have another.

Social effect of one child policy

Despite mass protests to the one child policy (citing article 16 of the universal declaration of human rights as being in violation of it) vast campaigning on the lines of sustaining current living standards, the damage done to children who cannot be properly provided for, and a generous system of tax cuts, a (very leading) national referendum passes the decision.

Following this success the Tory government redistributes the money ploughed back into the NHS by the old Labour government as mandatory birth control is put in place. The permits begin to be distributed and are at first voluntary- acquiring a permit and only having one child is rewarded by tax breaks and substantial money off education and healthcare, likewise, families that have more than one child after January 2032 receive no benefit or tax cuts, or even students loans. By 2038, the NHS is almost unrecognisable, its main focus is birth control, likewise the small service charge (similar to that of an ID card or Passport) on a C1-permit has risen to reflect 'rising shortages in basic welfare provision' and, it was argued in the last election, to prove, in basic outlay, that a family can provide for said child to an 'adequate degree' a C1-permit now costs upwards of €20,000, which (it is argued) is all paid back in terms of free health care, education and nutritional benefits.

However, as often happens, many aspects of the real effects of the policy aren't realised until they happen – the focus on caring the utmost for the children that are had, and the free reign of birth control and inability to afford permits separates the working and middle classes more than ever before. A working class life is largely without children, and consists of raunch culture, tabloids, careless sex, drink, and poor nutritional habits, as well as a huge demand for prostitutes which increases trafficking (primarily from Eastern Europe) to an un-policable level. Manual labour is much in demand in a new world of home-grown food stocks but UK residents not keen to work the land. It becomes much more common for working class men and women to join the armed forces, or to become homeless, ill, or severely depressed. Race becomes less of an issue as religion becomes more of one, though many ethnic minorities are much more likely to be working class. A middle class life takes one route for men, and one of two for women. With a return to traditional foodstuffs, and thus lifestyle and spending/saving, the 'man of the house' and 'the housewife' makes a resurgence- it is important to be seen to care perfectly for valuable children. Middle class women who do not choose to have children are generally looked down on as 'not natural' – and their difficult ascendancy into the workplace and academia since the turn of the 20^th century begins to be more and more undermined. Likewise, the single child policy has a devastating effect on relationships, the placing of the permit on the head (or womb) of women means that men will go through several wives in order to secure an heir (male usually desirable). Likewise, financial pressure on men to be the best earners- and therefore the best potential fathers causes widespread depression, middle-class alcoholism and break down. Out of the desperation of couples desperate for a child, or women, desperate to keep a husband, a black market in babies emerges – hand in hand with the new surge in prostitutions. 'Baby farm' operations begin to emerge in the largely deserted East of England (Lincolnshire, parts of Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire) – some women trafficked into the sex trade in cities are kept off birth control until pregnant- when they are not accepted by punters they are retired to baby farms (in large operations, or just another house in smaller ones). Here they wait to give birth, whilst the pimp secures a buyer. If a child is born with a disability, an illness or abnormality, a girl, or a desperate mother wants to fake a pregnancy (perfectly possible amongst the new, privatised healthcare system) they can secure a replacement child at a cost.

Economic context

During the global economic crisis 2007-2012 due to the impact of 80s deregulation, bad debt, and bad bets on the part of brokers, the world market near-collapsed. Countries hit 1000% inflation, there were runs on banks, hundreds of thousands of people world-wide lost jobs and homes, and western countries had to borrow a great deal to shore up financial systems built on previously shoddy foundations. The US particularly took out trillions of dollars worth of loans, primarily from the People's Republic of China. The new hope invested in the country's first black president quickly dissipated as it became clear he was not a panacea to the nation's ills- his unprecedented and earnest calls for a change in habits of spending, and a return to more traditional savings principals fell on deaf ears and he could only watch as the national wasted itself away. Meanwhile Russia hiked its threats to build nuclear bases threatening to US positions, and renewed debating of the position of Georgia and South Ossetia, this time allying itself with China. China had hitherto not sought to influence much outside its own interests, but as its power and unassailable economy, built on the broken backs of its nation, began to outgrow simple prosperity, China began to take an interest in effect world events in order to secure more sway over others. During the second South Ossetia conflict in 2013 the US was on the front line of peace keeping troops, or intended to be, however China called in some important debts, and marked, for the first time, the US's capitulation to a superior world power. Throughout the Decades the US began to fade as jobless, homeless and sick people at home demanded more attention. And natural disaster after another affected crops, and lost people their homes. The Democrats held onto power for two terms, but then were ousted by a Republican campaign driven entirely by the extreme religious-right – a return to 'traditional values' was put as a solution to the US's economic woe, as it was inferred that the troubles of the past decade was a kind of punishment. Once in power the Republicans put in a highly questionable tax system that left state services hideously underfunded and relaxed taxes on the rich, they put most of their time into revoking a great deal of equal rights legislation under the guise of 'tradition values' and the country sank into quasi Christian-fundamentalist squalor, with a super rich and a struggling super-poor majority, manual labour kept food supplies up and the great, new, working class were kept in place by the fear of the church. Many Americans left in this time, and were welcomed in Australia, New Zealand, and for a while, Europe. Despite a greater prevalence of religious extremes and attacks, the UK, especially following alliances with secularised countries such as France, retains its secularity, and faith, in any area of public life becomes frowned upon.

Russia and China thus rose as substantial economies, Russia with oil, gas, land for power stations, and China with produce, a work force. The solidifying of this partnership was instrumental in also solidifying the EU member states into one, and soon, the EURO was the accepted currency throughout the whole of Europe, relationships tied by previous heavy loans existing between EU countries, shoring the economy from within. In 2017 The EU changed tax policy so that countries were encouraged to source almost all of their produce from within the EU and dietary and living standards changed as a result of this- as more regional and traditional foodstuffs made a comeback- for example Rabbit and Mutton became popular meats because of their eating grass and not labour and fuel intensive grain. By 2023 each country was required to have a Ministry of Food from which food trade was dealt with directly, and eventually, often without direct monetary involvement, as the EU strove to become self sufficient, as well as a rival economic power to the Russo-China (later joined by India) alliance.

Environmental context

The three year floods and devastating livestock disease epidemics of the Black Summers have been the most obvious environmental impact of the past 35 years. During the floods, large swathes of the east cost, Cambridge, Peterborough, and parts of London were submerged for months. The Labour government (during a brief move of the houses of parliament to Birmingham) struggled to reclaim the land with insufficient resources, and when the Tory government of 2022 come to power, one of their main policies was 'prioritisation'. What this amounted to was abandoning a large amount of the north-eastern coast and inland flood plains, concentrating on reclaiming and re-enforcing the 'key economic and cultural/industrial sectors' of the more southerly areas hit. Though waters receded, much of the land is no longer used for agriculture, and very few people still live there, favouring much larger cities, or the new agricultural heartlands of Wales and the South West.

UK weather has become much milder and wetter during the long April-September summer with plunging temperatures and snow in winters from October to March.

Power provision for the UK largely comes from France's nuclear facilities the UK closes its last coal-fired power station in 2037. Some few nuclear power stations are owned by the UK government, but most (located in Scotland) are owned and run by France.

Many, many people die from flood and famine across Africa, and without aid from countries no longer rich enough to help others and rising temperatures and great bushfires, vast swathes of the continent become deserted.

Technological context

Great advances have been made in computing power and connectivity, wifi is available to all, free, and everywhere. Mobile phone signal is blanket cover and companies are EU-wide. Screens and mobile device technology are vastly more powerful and lighter, and advertising has become more significant –and often involves moving image. A revolution in battery nano-technology (batteries made of organic matter than reproduces) in 2032 has made landline phones defunct and portable technology much more flexible. Transport is largely electrical, though poorer people who cannot afford new electric cars but need transport continue to pay through the nose for petrol. Porn and online communities have played a large part in quelling the unfulfilled needs of the lower classes.

2008-11-17T00:40:00.002Z

Look what I did...

Now she has received the gift, I'm going to show off briefly about my first knitted set of real clothes! Bootees, mittens, and a hat (with button hole and everything) for my friends imminent baby! Tadaa!

2008-11-11T00:16:00.007Z

There and Back Again.

Back by popular request (well, actually just Lucy and my Dad, but that's one more request since last year, so woo!) I am blogging nice and promptly following my 6th week of 11 working on a piece with the Royal Court Young Writers Program. Though be warned, it's too late to expect accurate punctuation, my two wonderful spelling/grammar/punctuation/style books that I got for my birthday are, as yet, woefully neglected.

Today at the Court was a tutorial week, felt a bit weird going to London for only half an hour, to talk about an idea that's quite solid anyway, and have a smattering of advice that I'm already mostly aware of, but it was rewarding in the fact that Leo and the new literary assistant Natalie (can't remember second name, she's a director too) were really excited about the potential of the piece. I don't really want to give too much away about it yet. I know next to no one read the blog so it's not the nicking of the idea I'm worried about- It's just so... current that it, it feels a little unlucky to talk about it – jinxing and all that. Despite being a hyper-rationalist, and empiricist in terms of outlook and beliefs, and (sorry all) thinking religions are a lot about what's wrong with the world, and the good they bring not really about goodness, but about fear- I still have little habits or superstitions- as I'm sure all do. Magpies is one, I can't help but say 'one for sorrow' (I'm even feeling funny to type it) in my head whenever I see one (so many in the West Midlands!) and after then I need to see another in order to say 'two for joy', which ultimately ends up in my 'saving' ones to match with others in a weird record-keeping system in my head. Yep. Want another? Well I wish on stars (though don't you dare even consider that I might tell you a wish, lest it might not come true) not that unusual? I preface each wish with star light star bright the first star I see tonight, I wish I may I wish I might have this wish I wish tonight AND THEN address the wish with my full name and address, just in case they don't know where to find me. My mum once kindly described this as a mind that liked to be continually active. Otherwise known as more than a little bit of crazy... any way. To go into too much detail about the new play feels a little too soon for many reasons, both rational and irrational.

However, now I've built this up so much I feel that I should furnish you with at least a little info:

1) it's set in the future – 30-40 years

2) it is set amid a global food crisis, years of washed out crops, and dwindling resources, along with disease almost outstripping modern medicine, and healthcare costs spiralling all of which have resulted in the EU bringing in a one child policy- you purchase a permit (this meaning you are rich enough to afford a decent and healthy lifestyle for your child)- and only one permit is allowed, per woman, per life time.

3) the piece looks at the fate of one woman trafficked to the UK, not just for the sex industry, but for the newly sprung black market trade in babies, and a second, whose terminally ill newborn is threatening her marriage – her husband wants a male heir, and has left two previous wives in order to procure one. The play brings these two together.

In discussing this with Leo and Natalie- both seemed really excited and interested in the potential of the piece. And they both hinted in their advice at what I feel is key to writing this kind of Sci-Fi theatre, maintaining that all important suspension of disbelief . In order to do this I must be totally and 100% certain of the rules of my universe- I need to know every political and sociological and environmental event that has occurred between now and then that has created this world, and everything in it. And also, I need to go abot gently engaging the audience, so that an automatic recoil 'this isn't about or relevant to me' doesn't occur. This may be through using naturalistic language and setting, a recognisable Format (such as the dinner party – Top Girls an excellent example) but above all, it always, always has to be through the characters- because above all we have our humanity, our shared destiny in common. And in fact an idea of a shared present and a shared future is vital to my idea of using Sci-Fi in theatre. Although much Sci-Fi "presents aspects of a reader's empirical reality made strange through a new perspective [...] This recasting of the familiar has a 'cognitive' purpose, that is, the recognition of reality it evokes from the reader is a gain in rational understanding of the social conditions of existence" (Csicsery-Ronay Jr 2003, 118) The setting of current troubling aspects about our unsustainable lives in an extrapolated future would allow a deeper and more detailed examination of the possible damage we could do ourselves, as well as distancing the issue far enough that it might be looked upon with an eye on the wider socio-political implications. I also think this perhaps too clinical outside eye is tempered by emotion- because more your suspension of disbelief is pushed- the more you have invested in a piece emotionally, and the more you, as one in many (an audience) has contributed to a whole – rounding off the edges of the socio-political commentry nicely.

(Ideally...)

The first rough draft is due on the 1^st of December, I have set aside the weekend of the 22^nd/23^rd for the big write, and the weekend previous (this one coming in fact) to do some hardcore character/world exploration.

So yes, I think that's mostly all that's on my mind RE writing atm, except for my worrying lack of money, which is on my mind all the time anyway. I really, really need to make some money out of writing within the next 10 months or so, otherwise student debts demand that I get myself a full time job. I can't pretend the pay wouldn't be very welcome- but I'm not very good at proper jobs, I mean I work hard, but to be quite honest, I'm just not a 9-5 kind of person, no matter how awesome the job, and the fact that I do work hard, I still feel empty. I'm a 12-8pm worker, who is very selfishly on really interested in doing things that really drive and interest... and writing is really the only thing I've found so far I think that fits that. (oh me, oh my, why don't I go off and have a little cry) But I'm sure there are plenty of writer-to-be blogs out there bemoaning how difficult it is, fact is, I shut up, work hard, and with a bit of luck, get there. So yes. That's all the emo you'll be getting out of me tonight.

Right. Up the apples and pears to Bedfordshire... (snuggling up with Lord of the Rings courtesy of Morph this week). Much love to all and sundry.

Nanight xx

(Mini Bibliography:)

Csicsery-Ronay Jr, Istvan. "Marxist Theory and Science Fiction." In The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, by Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Image- chose this because of the idea of time travel and silly childish superstitions - it's a really old photo of my and my little brother, in Lincoln I guess.

2008-11-04T14:04:00.003Z

London, still.

Another day, another savagely late post. Apologies to the very few people who read this blog! I am very hard up for time, again. I was away all last week, and am mostly catching up.

Next week for the RC we have individual 1/2 hour tutorials to discuss potential ideas for our new play, so I need to sort out my ideas in my head (I have a couple of srtongish- impressions which I am considering combining if possible). I went the the V&A museum yesterday with my spare London-time - it was good, but I think after a while my brains topped taking in the beautiful objects.

In other news, I am bloody fed up of having wet feet, so I am selling a piece of spare PC stuff in order to buy a pair of boots.

I read all of the previously mentioned plays (see below), as well as Caryl Churchill's Drunk Enough to say I Love You (which puts the Bush/Blair relationship as a stilted relationship between two gay lovers) and found them all very different but each very valuable in terms of different styles of writing theatre (as I'm sure was intended). I think I found Woyczeck the most stylistically interesting, but (as usual) struggled with most of the female characters, or messages about women in all the plays (except those in A Raisin in the Sun) -it's not to say that bad, mean, unthinking, singularily sexualised women don't exist, but they are others too... A thought for another day perhaps. When you write for an under-represented group, you are almost always 'representing' not just 'portraying', doubly so in A Raisin in the Sun - another reason why that play is so astonishing. Do read it. I wish I could see it, I think it would have quite a transformative feeling/effect.

Anyway, must get on. Need to formulate ideas for my new play, tentaively titled Eismas/Mine.

tataa! Hxx

2008-10-22T23:45:00.002+01:00

London III, With Added Explosions.

Hello, hello, I'm a bit late posting this week, life, as it does, has been beginning to get in the way, less and less time to squeeze things in, so obviously, the immediately productive things, like scene writing and play reading, come first, blog writing, and apparently, sentence structure, latterly so. The third trip down to London this time, and the second half of the Natural History Museum (see the picture - ironically enough, very relevant to later, you'll see!), before schlepping through the rain to the RC. I would be tempted to write a much shorter entry had the session been run of the mill, but it actually offered a really useful and refreshing systematic approach to playwriting. Not to say that the rest isn't extremely useful, it's just having taken part in quite a few workshops with TWP and the MPhil, it was excellent to hear a wholly new approach. The worst thing is I can't for the life of me remember the name or the exact position of the woman who led the session! Suffice to say she's high up in the literary dept. (she may have been the head of it). Anyway, what was so refreshing about what was in essence, a structural seminar, was that instead of admitting grudgingly that 'yes the 3 act structure is mainly for films, though there is currency in it, and although Aristotle was a very very long time ago and writing in a different world, he makes a lot of sense, if you look at it objectively' she pretty much threw that out the window straight away, and then crucially, she offered an alternative. The Storm Play. She suggested that the best, greatest , and earth shattering plays are Storm plays, plays that admit life to be chaotic, indivisible, and as unpredictable as the weather. Following on from Brook's assertion that 'theatre is life concentrated' (I'm probably paraphrasing) she suggested that we think in organic terms, about plays as living systems, as unpredictable and volatile as the weather/the global economy/the political arena etc. There are 4 key definitions of a living system:

They exist on the edge of chaos – they are ever changing (and never in the 'equilibrium' that the life-manuals so desire (equilibrium=death!))
They are dynamic and never stay still – there is high and low pressure, energy moves out and in. (think entrances/exists/catalysts/characters)
They move constantly between order and disorder – moments of change provoke evolution. Disorder is the place where change happens. (and follows on from the previous point)
They respond to disturbances by rearranging their patterns- the system is pushed to a point where either it must change or die (both of these are possible outcomes). In Chekhov's The Seagull, the suicide is caused by the character's inability to adapt.

Thus the idea of (not entirely discarding the 3 act structure, but changing the structural emphasis to) the 'storm' in a play, was posed as a manner of thinking about playwriting. To consider your job as constructing a living system, to acknowledge that you cannot direct that system, only put pressure on it and disturb it in order that you discover the edges, and find your way to the eye of the storm (heart of your play). You can also consider this on a smaller scale- in dialogue- dialogue can be seen quite easily as a living system – good dialogue is under pressure (else why speak?), it is dynamic, it moves between order and disorder and rearranges itself according to the characters' intentions- we talk in order to change people - which is (apparently I have no source for this and it's too late to look) an evolutionary imperative.

It was a very interesting a quite releasing approach to playwriting, I have to say that I have always felt incredibly bogged down by thought on act structure- forcing plays into boxes, obviously plays need structure- I'm not going all hippy about this, but the session sort of articulated and made ok, something I have always felt I was failing slightly at- strict structure. An organic approach, seems much more sensible, and at this stage in my writing, very useful.

There is more to talk about in terms of the scene that I've been actioning/redrafting, and the 5 plays which I have now read (see previous post for titles), but it really is time for bed, work tomorrow, followed by another weekend away, I'm not back until next Tuesday, and am (again) fast losing the ability to grammarise. So yes, I shall leave you. I think I may not have done the RC lady justice (not least in not remembering her name) and assure you that it was very definitely not hippyish- just more like new science is to old science, if that makes sense.

Good wishes to all and sundry, Hxx

2008-10-14T19:25:00.002+01:00

London II, Back with a Vengeance.

So, my second visit to London, and I had a much better time of it. This time I went to the Natural History Museum, and thoroughly enjoyed myself! I enjoyed it much more than the Tate Modern... not sure what that says about me! But yes, walked around the dinosaur bit- and the animal/human biology wing, and before I knew it, it was time to go! Only did about a ¼ of it, so I think I may go back next week, South Kensington also has the V&A and Science Museums- enough to keep me happy for a good few weeks I reckon, and then perhaps spend a day in one of the parks, and the national portrait gallery. Also, the food in London- how good? So many different types and awesome smells, makes me wish I wasn't so poor I had to take my own pack up!

So it got around to 7pm again, and I made my way to the RC for session numero deux. We began by discussing Now or Later by Christopher Shinn (which we had been given to read the previous week). Overall It's a really interesting piece, sort of an American state-of-the-nation play. Be warned, if you intend on reading it/going to see it for yourself, (and I would recommend it) the rest of this paragraph contains spoilers. The piece follows the son of the soon-to-be president elect of the USA (John) on the eve of his father's electoral victory (John Snr.). It is almost certain that his father (a democrat) will take the presidency, and this is not the issue- rather the rather sticky situation of pictures of John Jnr. appearing at an Ivy League college party dressed up as Mohammed. There also emerges a video of him simulating fellatio on 'Pastor Bob' – a Christian far right fundamentalist loony. Think Harry dressing up as a Nazi had he been 3^rd in line to the throne on VE day. However this is not a stupid prank, John Jnr had recently been embroiled in some complicated freedom of speech issues on campus- anti-Muslim cartons had been put up and Muslim groups on campus had used this to challenge the university's freedom of speech policy- demanding punishment, calling the pictures an incitement to hatred/violence. John wrote a piece in the student magazine defending the freedom of speech policy which was the construed into an attack on the Muslim groups. A female liberal fellow student who also happens to be holding a 'naked party' attacks John Jnr in a lecture regarding this, he and a friend (on the spur of the moment) decide to go to the party as Mohammed and Pastor Bob to make clear the irony of the student completely defending the Muslim group's right to quash freedom of speech- whilst also holding a party that a Muslim state would render illegal. The whole piece centres on whether or not John will make a statement apologising for his actions.

The play makes some interesting and uncomfortable points about the clash between public and private worlds, about the 'narrative'-driven nature of modern politics, the difficult nature of left wing politics with regards to Islam, all played out within the gulf between a father and his son. Several very good points were made in the RC group discussion – for example the choice to close the piece down into a single space/time frame, to allow the complex issues to breathe, and also, the choice not to have a Muslim voice in the piece, which I think made it much clearer the confusion and misconceptions, and also doesn't pretend to even begin to understand the other viewpoint. It is an uncomfortable read, phrases such as 'these people' and 'more sophisticated than them' made me cringe, but also made me think 'yes I believe in the right to believe what you want, but a religion, any religion that disagrees with that, I must also disagree with- any kind of evangelist sect/religion' I also have very deeply held beliefs about the freedoms of women, and although my dissertation research revealed that Islam is not historically sexist, and indeed stresses complete equality in monetary, personal and business spheres, it has (like many other religions) been subsumed by patriarchy, from which we get FGM, dowry, female-property laws, ridiculous rape laws et al. But the fact of the matter is that literal Islam - as it is read by many, fundamentally subjugates women, gay people, and other freedoms and human rights. The play emphasised the difficulty of this liberal debate by placing someone (gay, incidentally) seeing a situation in black and white, set against a debate of many, many shades of grey. I think that the play was overall very economical and well crafted, though perhaps suffered for the great weight of ideas and difficult argument (even 3 hours long I don't think the piece would ever feel long enough), and the final decision a little disingenuous, it was a very interesting, and pertinent piece. I might ask my semi-Muslim, and strictly Muslim friends to read it though, would be interested in a reaction from their point of view.

Following the discussion of this piece, we moved on to working on the pieces written following last week's session. In small groups we read out, and gave feedback on the short scenes – my scene was set atop a hill in Lincolnshire- two people are meeting there- A has asked B to come, she wants him to finally tell her it's over- their relationship having finished, but him generally saying not forever. A loves B still. Although B has a family, and their not being together for 8 years, B won't say it's over, because there's still something there. A is also losing her home – Lincolnshire has been given over to widespread flooding and is being completely evacuated. They are meeting on a hill on which they began and ended their relationship. As usual my first draft was far too cryptic, one guy got what A wanted, and not the flooding thing, and the other guy the other. This didn't surprise me, but was still useful to know. We then did some work on filling out character backgrounds, and on the dreaded transitive verbs- 'actioning' words. IE the idea that a line of dialogue is only useful and dramatic- that is, active- if it has an underlying action; 'I persuade you', 'I evade you', 'I tempt you' etc. Always good for filtering out all of the pretty sentences which don't actually move a piece on, though I do feel a tad tiring when applied in detail. Anyway, idea is to use those exercises in order to redraft the scene for two weeks time. We also have to read some or all of the following plays:

Woyzeck
Spring Awakening
A Raisin in the Sun
King Lear
Krapp's Last Tape

Which should be good, I've already read Lear (though don't have a copy) and have the complete Beckett, but I've bought the first four anyway, because the more plays you read the better really, especially when you can't afford to see them!

So yes, that was Monday. In other news I had a fun birthday weekend with a meal out and some Jazz/Funk, but am extremely tired following London/Weekend out/not sleeping well last night because of a cold. Feels a bit odd to be going to work on my Birthday (tomorrow), turning officially mid-twenties (24) and generally not seeing anyone on my actual birthday, but ho-hum, such is getting older yes? Bah!

Thanks for reading,