Friday 11 March 2011

Bite Size at the Subs


In January as part of Turn Back Stroud Time week we performed five short characters in the Sub Rooms Cafe . These proved very popular and we are back on March 19th for British Tourism Week with three very British characters. The Duke of Wellington, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Cecil Hubert Booth. Now chances are you've said "Who?" to Mr Booth's name - well he is the Gloucester born inventor of that every day household object the vacuum cleaner. Forget Hoover and Dyson - Booth is the man who made your carpets clean. You can find out more about these characters by coming to the Sub Rooms Cafe at the following times:

12.30 - The Duke of Wellington
1.00 - Cecil Hubert Booth
1.30 - Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Each performance lasts about 10 minutes. Come see Bite Size History.

Monday 14 February 2011

Into February

Busy....busy....busy. Scripts to finish, venues being booked and schools and museum shows still happening. On Sunday 20th February we have a special performance of Carl Linnaeus - The Man Who Named Plants at Dean Heritage Centre in The Forest of Dean. This is an opportunity to explore the local landscape, discover how to name plants in Latin and find out about the life of the famous historical Swedish naturalist. Performances at 11.30, 1.00 and 2.30 (possibly to include a short walk around the site).
Most of our time at present is being spent on Forgotten Sporting Heroes of Gloucestershire with village halls, libraries pubs and theatres all now booking performances and the calendar starting to fill up. - See Forgotten Sporting Heroes blog for more details.
We are running an twilight Inset session at the Museum in the Park on 2nd March to preview the performance and workshop for schools and libraries and any teachers who want to come along there are still spaces.
In addition if there are any venues looking for performances of Forgotten Sporting Heroes then please get in touch.

Monday 24 January 2011

What's happened/happening in January?

Work continues on researching and writing the new scripts for the Forgotten Sporting Heroes of Gloucestershire project. Publicity is no out there and we are starting to get bookings from schools, venues and other places. This in addition to the already arranged libraries and museums performances.

On top of that we have been involved with a Turn Back Stroud Time project working with Stroudwater Textile Trust, Museum in the Park and funded and supported by the BBC, Stroud Town Council and Stroud FM. On Friday 28th and Saturday 29th there will be a number of costumed characters in Stroud High Street as part of a special guided walk where "History Comes Alive"! 10.15 a.m. on Friday and 2.00 p.m. on Saturday.

On top of that on Saturday 29th we are performing short bits of our more usual Victorian characters in the Sub Rooms Cafe under the title "Bite Size At The Subs" from 12-2. This is a kind of test for a soup/supper theatre idea which the Sub Rooms are keen for us to try later in the year.

Monday 25 October 2010

Grants, performances and a busy time

On Friday the Arts Council confirmed our grant for the Forgotten Sporting Heroes Project which means that Fearless Navigators and Mad Jack surfers will now be going ahead in 2011. Hurrah!
Also coming up - possibly the final performance for a while of Dark Tales of Gloucestershire at Palmer Hall, Fairford on October 29th.
It's a great show - good fun and the people who have worked on it have been fantastic but going to give it a rest - mainly because I have a new show planned, bigger, better, weirder but still as silly, lively and funny. Not to be revealed until next year!!
Got two performances for Rememberance Day of Tommy Atkins and The Canary Girl. This is a great emotional and I think honest show about the First World War. Performances at the Jenner Museum at 7.30 p.m. on 11th November and at Museum in the Park on Sunday 14th November at 3.00 p.m.

Thursday 19 August 2010

Preview performance - Fearless Navigator

The preview performances of this new piece about Howard Blackburn went brilliantly. I had a bit of a loss of confidence in my writing and performance of late but this gave me back some of that. The audience response was brilliant - an audience made up of people from 6 to 60 - possibly best comment being - "Story of a hero, told brilliantly and needs to be told to more people!"

Quietly confident that Mr. Blackburn and I could have a fruitful future!

The aim of the test performance was to see what audiences think it needed and quite agree that it needs sound and lights - need to create more atmosphere. The story's there now to clear up the overall look and tighten the script and performance ready to let it loose on a larger public next year!

Saturday 14 August 2010

Forgotten Sporting Heroes of Gloucestershire

This new project working in partnership with the Gloucestershire Archives and Museum In the Park in Stroud is underway. Four forgotten sporting heroes each with a connection to Gloucestershire have been chosen and a preview/test performance of one - Howard Blackburn who sailed solo across the Atlantic from Gloucester, Massachusetts to Gloucester, England in 1899, despite having lost all his fingers and a number of toes through frostbite - will happen next Wednesday 18th August at the Frith Centre at Gloucester Archives (the anniversary of his epic solo voyage).

Having a few problems making hands where the fingers can be there and then lost through frostbite and with the general staging of the piece - what do I use? what furniture? how much does it need and how much can be the imagination? It's always a debate that you have with theatre in odd environments like an education room but think I've now sussed this.

Two days of rehearsal and then it's on for two performances. Here's hoping it all goes well!